


the city of secrets and masks

by aceofsun



Category: Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Angst, Fluff, Minor Violence, Needles, Panic Attacks, Superheroes
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-16
Updated: 2020-11-05
Packaged: 2021-03-08 23:14:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 22
Words: 40,273
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27034771
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aceofsun/pseuds/aceofsun
Summary: About 97% of people manifest a power on their 15th birthday. Most go about their lives, using their power when it can help them day to day.Superheroes and supervillains are common occurrences these days. Usually, each city has about two or three heroes, one big villain, and many minor villains.The city of Illosia has about ten heroes and an ever-increasing villain problem.Sounds like a wonderful place for two more rising stars to jump in, right?unfinished atm! this started on wattpad so sorry for any formatting issues :)tw // violence, guns, blades, panic attacks, illness, hospitals, needles, drug mention
Comments: 117
Kudos: 468





	1. -One- Welcome to Illosia

"Illosia- A shining city surrounded by water. Known mostly for the technological advances that happen there. Also known for the high population of Heroes who live there."

The whole thing had started as a joke. It started when Tommy and Tubbo were fourteen- a year before they manifested their powers. Both of them were obsessed with superheroes at that point and they decided to save up some money together so they could move to Illosia and become superheroes as soon as they were old enough.

Now, four years later, the friends were standing on the deck of a ferry as they traveled to the so-called City of Heroes. Tommy leaned on the barrier and stared at the city. Seeing it in person was so much different than seeing a photo. Tubbo folded and unfolded a brochure nervously. A few bugs buzzed around him, but he didn't seem to mind.

"Welcome to Illosia!" A voice crackled from the ferry's PA system. "Please collect your items and prepare to leave the ship!"

Tommy picked up his bag and looked back at the skyline, letting out a sigh.

It was much more exaggerated than he meant it to be. Tubbo looked at him and quirked his head to the side a bit. "You alright?"

"Mhm, yeah. Just a bit strange to be here." Tommy said.

Tubbo nodded in agreement and absentmindedly held a hand out. A dragonfly landed on his fingers and he smiled at it. As he and Tommy departed from the ferry, he thought back about when his life changed forever.

His fifteenth birthday. The day he got his power. He'd woken up that morning and was a bit terrified at what he saw. 

Bees, at least a hive full, had congregated above his bed. He'd sat up quickly, surprised to find that none of them stung him when he shot through the cloud of bees.

After that it took about ten minutes of trial and error to figure out that he could talk to them and that they would listen and talk back.

Another fifteen minutes later, he'd realized this extended to all insects and also arachnids. He was one of the lucky ones- he figured out how to effectively use his power pretty quickly. Sometimes people don't know their power for years

Tommy was one of those people. He still hadn't figured out his power. After all this time, he found it really didn't bother him. He was still planning on a career in heroism, with the help of one tool- A baseball bat.

He spun the wooden bat in his hand as he and Tubbo walked down the sidewalk. They'd already rented a small apartment somewhere deeper in the city.

"Hey Tommy?" Tubbo said, looking around in awe.

"Yeah, Tubbo?"

"Where exactly is the apartment?"

"...Shit."

The two friends stopped on the sidewalk and set their bags down to try and figure out the location of their new home. They had the address, so they use a maps app to try and figure out where it was.

Across the street, a young man with large sunglasses on scrolled through his phone as he headed towards his own apartment. He was supposed to be welcoming a new roommate today and his current roommate wanted him to pick up some snacks. He frowned as his phone lit up with a incoming call. He answered it and was greeted by the voice of his current roomate.

"GEORGE! WHERE ARE YOU?"

"Calm down, I'm on my way back from the store. Is he there yet?"

"No, but he may be soon!"

"Sure, Sapnap. He's not even supposed to show up until later tonight. We've got a few hours. Did you clean any while I was gone, by the way?"

"Uhm.... Yeah? Anyways I gotta go now bye!" Sapnap rushed to get the words out before he hung up. 

"Idiot forgot to clean and is rushing now, huh." George said, mostly to himself as he walked by a brown haired man who was playing the guitar. George tossed a dollar into his guitar case and kept walking.

The brown haired man smiled and strummed another song out as he people-watched. A pink haired man lounged on the windowsill nearby. He jumped down as the guitar player finished up his song. 

"We done for today, Wilbur?" Wilbur looked up at the pink haired man.

Wilbur nodded. "Sure, Techno. Are we planning on going out tonight?"

"Yeah, we need to get back and get ready. Phil's waiting. Just got his text." Techno ran a hand through his hair. "Just normal patrols tonight, though."

Wilbur got his stuff together and stood up. He counted the money out before putting it into a small bag. Techno helped him gather his items and the pair walked towards their apartment. 

Down the road a bit, a dark haried man in a blue hoodie was showing off. He had drawn a small crowd by just doing parlor tricks. He turned his fingers into a blue crystal and let it spread until his entire arm was crystal. Then he took his arm and a hammer and made a show of showing everyone his arm.

Gasps filled the crowd as he then took the hammer and split his crystal arm straight off. He yelped and the crowds seemed unsure. Then he lifted his arm and held his other hand over it. The broken ends of the crystals grew out until they were the correct length. Then he wiped his hand over the crystal. It receded and became his arm again. The crowed exclaimed at this ability. The performer smiled. It didn't reach his eyes.

"Thank you so much! Put donations in this bag please!" He walked around and collected the money the crowd was offering. They didn't see the hooded man at the back send a text and they didn't notice the ding of the preformer's phone. He finished collected the money and walked off.

The hooded man left the crowd and followed the performer off into the park. The two met up.

"Bad," the performer said in a singsong voice, turning around to face the hooded one. "Why'd you do that?" He held up the arm which had formerly chopped off. "I coulda fixed it on my own."

The hooded figure- Bad- pulled his hood down. He seemed a bit upset. "You do this too much, Skeppy! One day it's gonna mess up and I won't be there to help grow it back."

"It's fine, Bad! I've done this for years! It's a hit show, too. I get enough for rent each time I do it." Skeppy ran a hand through his hair. Bad crossed his arms.

"...Fine, you can do this show once a month. But I have to be there, okay?"

"Deal." Skeppy smiled at his friend. "Let's go home now, m'kay? I'll order pizza!"

"Ooh, sounds nice!" The argument was dropped and the two friends went to their apartment 

Four different groups entered their separate apartments.

Tommy and Tubbo walked into an empty apartment and prepared to make it a home.

George walked into an apartment where Sapnap was rushing about, trying to pick up a before the new roommate came.

Techno and Wilbur walked into an apartment where the smell of something cooking filled the air. Phil was cooking something.

Bad and Skeppy walked into an empty apartment that already felt like home.

There's a certain feeling that comes with knowing that things are about to change but not knowing how or why. It's an odd feeling.

Every one of our cast was feeling this as they walked into their apartment. For some, the why was obvious. A new roommate or a new city. To others, it was not.

But they all knew- Something was going to change.

And it was going to change tonight.


	2. -Two- First Night

George and Sapnap were prepared.

George had returned home and put the groceries away. Sapnap rushed about in a slight panic, picking up the many items strewn across the floor. George helped him once he finished with the groceries.

After finishing cleaning, they ordered some pizza and cleaned themselves up to meet their new roommate. They set the pizza out on the table and turned on the TV to wait with.

They were sure they were prepared for whoever came through the door. All they knew so far was that he went by Dream and he could pay a part of the rent. It would have been much smarter to find someone they already knew, but they hadn't thought of that in the moment. Past is past, now they were gonna have to live with whoever walked through the door.

He seemed nice enough, based on the messages sent back and forth between them

Soon enough, there was a knock on the door. George got up and went to open it.

George and Sapnap were not prepared.

Dream was tall, with dirty blonde hair. He wore a green hoodie. His face was covered by a white mask with a simple smile on it. Odd, but not too unusual in this world. Most likely, he had a power like George's that related to his eyes.

The next thing to notice about Dream would be the gash through his hoodie and the blood which made the green hoodie turn brown.

He looked George up and down. George wondered how he could see for a second, but was knocked out of his thoughts as Dream spoke.

"Hey, is this the right place? I'm supposed to be rooming here and I, uh," He gestured at his wound. "I kinda need some assistance."

Sapnap turned around and looked at dream. There was a second of silence. 

Sapnap broke it. "Yeah, this is the right place."

\----------

Wilbur, Techno, and Phil were preparing.

They ate and then began to suit up. Contrary to popular belief, superhero costumes weren't all that fancy. Most superheroes had to do costumes on a low budget and these were no different. Doesn't mean they didn't look good, though.

The trio gathered their weapons and walked out of their house, down to the Guardians Hub. The tall building was where the heroes of the city gathered to do official stuff and check-in for patrols and missions. The group checked in and began walking around the city.

Patrols were looked down on by most heroes. Who would want to walk around the city for hours when you could just sign up to do big raids or manhunts for certain criminals?

The hero team of Sleepy Bois Inc., of course. Techno had been in his fair share of large hero events and just preferred to walk around the city with his team. Wilbur and Phil generally agreed with that sentiment. It was just easier and better to work with friends.

The group just walked and talked through the city. The sun was setting and the city started getting dark. The night air was cool and music from buskers or clubs kept the atmosphere nice. The group was about halfway through their patrol and the night seemed to be shaping out to be calm. 

Techno much preferred this type of patrol to the ones full of action. Too many of those had happened recently. Something seemed to be stirring in the underground of the city.

And honestly? Techno was good leaving that to someone else. He wasn't a fan of situations that could get too dangerous. He was happy with how his life was now. He didn't want one of his friends to get hurt.

Techno was forced to pay attention as a shriek filled the air. He looked at his team and nodded. They nodded back. He lead the charge to where the scream came from.

Looks like this night wasn't going to be peaceful, after all.

\----------

Bad and Skeppy didn't see any reason to prepare.

The friends walked home and ordered some pizza. There was a bit of tension in the air from their last argument, but the duo ignored it. A cold silence fell as they clicked on the TV and ate.

Time ticked on. The sun started going down. Tension grew.

Skeppy broke the silence. "Do you wanna..." He looked over at Bad, a bit nervous. "Do you wanna go out or something?"

"Skeppy, we just got back," Bad said, giving him an odd look.

"Ehhhhhh..." Skeppy stretched and stood up. "I can't sit still right now. I'll just go take a walk, come if you want."

Bad nodded. "Alright then." He got up and put his plate in the dishwasher. He stopped by the windowsill, where a tomato plant was growing. He started tending to it. When he bought this a while back, he decided it would be the one thing he grew without using his powers. It was doing fairly well.

Bad hummed a tune as he got a small bit of water and poured it into the plant pot. He went to turn around and chills shot up his spine.

People told Bad that he was good at knowing when something was going to happen. Some people thought his power was premonition before he showed them that he could make things grow. It was just an odd talent.

At that moment, he knew something was about to happen. A shoe was about to drop. Bad finished what he was doing and slid on his hoodie and shoes. Even if nothing happened, he figured it would be better to be there with Skeppy just in case.

He met Skeppy at the door and they left. After a few minutes of talking as they left their apartment, they concluded they'd go down to the piers and come back. It'd be about 20 minutes and it would satisfy Skeppy's need to get out of the house.

The pair enjoyed the nice night. It was creeping closer to fall so nice summer nights like this one were about to be few and far between. Bad was glad he decided to come out. Skeppy and him chattered as they walked down the sidewalk. All earlier resentment was forgotten as they joked and talked.

Their chatter stopped for a moment and Bad looked across the road. He sighed, genuinely happy to just be with his friend. Bad scanned their surroundings, trying to find a topic to talk about. Someone caught his eye.

A hooded figure stood across the street. He stopped and looked at them for a second. They seemed to notice him.

Bad couldn't see the person's mouth, but he was pretty sure there was a smile on their face. He felt his blood go cold for a second. Something was up. Something was wrong.

A car passed and the person was gone. Bad blinked. There was no sign of them.

"Odd," he said quietly. He went to turn back to Skeppy. "Did you see tha- Skeppy?"

Skeppy was not there. Bad's heart began to race. He knew something was up. He knew something was off. He looked around frantically.

"Skeppy, this better not be a prank," Bad said, panic creeping into his voice. "Where are you? Skeppy?"

A scream rang out. Bad was almost sure he knew who it belonged to. It felt like his veins turned to ice. He began to run towards where the scream came from.

Bad wasn't usually one for violence. He was a fairly peaceful guy with a peaceful power.

But if someone hurt his friend, there'd be hell to pay.

\----------

Tubbo and Tommy were not prepared, but they never planned on being prepared.

They had a basic plan for the night, which had four basic steps.

Step one was to drop off their bags. The apartment was sparsely furnished, so they could put most stuff away. Other items would be shipping from their houses soon.

Step two was to find a convince store and buy essentials. The exact definition of essentials was blurred, and the two only had a bit of spending money for now. Tubbo's definition of essentials dealt with soap and some basic kitchenware.

Tommy's was snacks and nails for his baseball bat. Each to their own, I suppose.

Step three was to get home, order delivery, and eat.

Step four was to go wander around and get the lay of the land near their new home.

The duo was at the start of step four right now. Tubbo was putting his shoes on and Tommy was checking whether or not it was illegal to carry a baseball bat around. (It's not, but Tubbo still tried to argue that he wouldn't need it. Tommy didn't listen).

Tubbo was excited to meet the bugs of the area. He'd already noticed that there was a distinct lack of bees in the area. He planned to fix that by buying a beehive. He was pretty sure it'd be fine. About 70% sure.

Tommy was excited to see the city properly. He wanted to find some crime and he wanted to fight that crime. He was pretty sure it'd be legal to just punch a pickpocket. About 70% sure.

The two left their apartment and began exploring the nearby areas. They had a few nice shops around, a restaurant across the street, and a park about five minutes away. They decided to walk down to the pier and back.

They stopped a couple of times to get street food, but soon enough they were at the pier. It was just about to get dark, so they started to walk back.

"Hey, Tubbo? Hey, do you what the procedure is to become a hero?" Tommy said, looking around.

"No, not really." Tubbo allowed a ladybug to perch on his finger. It buzzed at him and he smiled back.

"I mean, I thought you just had to beat up a bad guy or something," Tommy said, spinning his bat around. "but when I looked up if it was legal to carry a bat around, the site said something like needing to apply."

Tubbo looked at his friend and pulled out his phone. "Huh, really? Hold on, I'll look it up." He used voice to text to ask his question and quickly found a video on it. He played it for Tommy to hear.

It started with pleasantries. Basic stuff. The boys skipped past those parts until they got to what they wanted to hear.

"If you'd like to apply to be a hero, head to your nearest Guardians Hub! They can give you all the needed paperwo-" The video was cut off by Tommy.

"Tubbo, we could go do that now! What else do we have to do?"

"Oh, you're right! Let's do it!" Tubbo grinned at his friend.

"ALRIGHT THEN!! What's it called, a guardian hub?" He took his phone out and typed the keywords into maps. Soon enough, the pair were on their way to the Hub. 

About ten minutes later, they were there. It was almost dark, but the place was still open. Neon blue lights lit up the outside. Tommy barged in, with Tubbo coming in behind him quietly.

"Hello, what can I do for you?" asked a woman at the registration desk. Tommy ran up to the desk.

"We want to become heroes!" He declared.

"Alright, just one second, please." The woman smiled and clicked some things on her computer. Soon enough, a small stack of paperwork was placed on the desk. Tommy looked at it in mild horror. Tubbo looked even more horrified at it. The woman handed them each a pencil and a clipboard.

"This half is for you," she split the staff in half quickly and slid one half towards Tommy. "And this is for you." She slid the rest towards Tubbo.

The two boys went to sit in the waiting room. Tubbo leaned over to Tommy. "How am I supposed to do this? I'm not very good at reading, you know."

Tommy whispered back, "Don't worry, I'll help you."

And then they got to work. Most of the questions were basic. Name, age, power, specialties. The two powered through those fairly easily. It took about thirty minutes in total. They walked up to the women to turn the papers back in. She accepted them with a smile. 

"Thank you two so much! We'll send you a message soon letting you know your approval status soon! I wish you two the best of luck-" A phone rang under the desk. She picked it up and waved at the boys. They started heading towards the door.

"Alright, okay... Sending backup no-" the woman said into the receiver. She looked around. "Aw, shit. One sec." The boys glanced back at her. She scrolled through something on her computer.

"SHIT," she cussed much louder this time. "Issue with that request- No one else is currently on patrol."

A deeper voice could be heard from the other side of the call. The woman nodded and looked around, a bit panicked. She met eyes with Tommy and grinned before looking back down and typing something rapidly.

"Found someone. Sending them now," She interrupted the other person and hung up. Then she looked up at the boys.

"Hey, so I need some help. Do you think you could be backup for a team of pros? They just need some help securing someone. You seem strong enough."

Tommy puffed out his chest at the compliment. "We'll do it if you put in a good word on our applications." 

She nodded. "Sure, yeah. Go to Rosila Street, just about one street away. They're in an alley nearby. You'll recognize them. Good luck."

Tubbo looked a bit nervous. "Are we sure this is a good idea?"

"YES! WE'RE DOING IT! BYE, LADY!" Tommy grabbed Tubbo's arm and pulled him out the door. 

"Tubbo, Tubbo, Tubbo, Tubbo! This is our chance to hit it big! Come on, she said it shouldn't be hard. I've got my bat, you've got your bees, we'll be fine."

Tubbo still looked a bit uncertain, but nodded anyways. "Alright then." He pulled his arm away from Tommy and looked ahead. "Now, where's that street she said?"

The new 'heroes' were on their first mission.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hhhhh second chapter pog?? a lot more people have already seen this- i thought it'd get traction much more slowly!  
> anyways! hope you enjoyed!


	3. -Three- Unexpected

Wilbur was just a bit excited, honestly. It had been a while since the last time he had gotten into a fight.

He'd be lying if he said he didn't at least mildly enjoy fights. They were quick and exhilarating. Also, if everything went well, he wouldn't get hurt. Another bonus was that he could use his powers. He loved his powers and they seemed perfect for him. They were the reason he got into music.

He activated his powers and silenced the sound of his team's footfalls. He closed his eyes and listened. 

He heard a voice, just a street or two away. "Get away from me, you...!" The sentence was cut off by a choking noise Wilbur's eyes shot open again and he took the lead of the group. He made some signals to Phil and Techno. Phil nodded and launched into the air to get an aerial view of the streets. Wilbur focused and silenced the general area.

Wilbur led Techno through a couple of alleyways and soon enough, they could see a hooded figure holding a dark-haired man up against the wall by his throat. The man was gasping for air and was trying to access his power.

//tw- needles

Phil started the attack with a shot from the sky. The hooded figure took the arrow in their shoulder and flinched but didn't say anything. They took out a needle. Wilbur couldn't tell if it was empty or full.

Either way, not good for the victim. Wilbur dropped the silence. He heard a loud cuss come from the victim as the needle was inserted into their vein. He could see the needle fill up with red blood. As soon as it was full, he pulled it out and dropped it into a bag. 

//tw over

The figure pulled out a knife and stabbed the victim in the leg. Techno rushed forward at this and the figure dropped the victim.

The figure laughed. Wilbur hated the noise- it was raspy and dry.

Wilbur spent his efforts on making a small barrier of sound around the victim, who was panting but attempting to use his power. It was kind of pitiful, honestly. The tips of his fingers turned into a blue crystal before it crumbled away and he crumpled over, passed out. His wound was bleeding badly. Damn, they needed a healer on their team.

The victim must have been putting up one hell of a fight before they got there. Blood dripped from the attacker's hands and arms. Wilbur felt bad for the guy. He looked like he would be fine though. Overuse of power was a horrible feeling but was easy to recover from with some rest. The knife wasn't near anything vital, as far as Will could tell. Blood loss was his word threat right now, and Wilbur could bandage his wound as soon as the fighting was done. He should live. Wilbur sure hoped he lived.

Techno was slashing towards the figure, but his blows kept missing by centimeters. Phil's arrows were the same. That knocked out a few powers- he probably had something related to movement.

Will tried his attack. He increased the frequency of the sound around the figure's head. The figure froze, allowing Techno to get a hit in. The figure glitched away from Techno's blade and appeared next to Wilbur.

Ah, teleportation then, Wilbur thought. Ah, so we're gonna end up losing him. Then he was hit by the teleporter's knife. Wilbur cussed and backed up. A bloody gash opened up on his arm and a part of his chest.

The sound of footfalls and a call of "Skeppy?" came from the other side of the alleyway. Wilbur looked up and saw a man in a black and red hoodie looking around. He watched the man with caution but kept most of his focus on the hooded figure.

He wished he hadn't, because now he will forever wonder what happened then. He will wonder about that man's face as he saw his friend, crumpled on the ground, blood pooling around him.

He will wonder what the man's face looked like as his emotion overruled his control. But he will never know. All he will know is one second his feet were on the ground and he was looking at a hooded figure who had just assaulted a man.

And the next he had been tangled into overgrown weeds and was looking at someone in the same situation. Techno was trapped too, but the vines would be easy enough for him to tear out of. Phil had been yanked from his hovering position and was entangled as well.

The man in the hoodie looked tired now. That big of a burst of power would knock a normal person out. Wilbur got the sense that this man was not totally normal. He dropped his sound barriers so the man could get to his friend.

Who the hell is this guy?

\----------

Skeppy was terrified. He'd felt a hand grasp his forearm and whipped around to face the person who grabbed him. It was a hooded figure. Skeppy was about to yell out for Bad but the figure smiled. Skeppy felt a weird sensation sweep over his body.

It took him a second to realize- he was being teleported. He turned around. Bad wasn't looking at him. He reached out an arm and tried to call out for his friend.

Soon enough he was reaching out to a wall. Bad was gone. He cussed and turned his hands to crystal. He tried to fight back.

The man just teleported away. Skeppy cussed again. The man laughed.

His voice was raspy and grating. "You're too late." Skeppy looked around, guarding himself. The man disappeared. Skeppy looked around for where he reappeared.

Skeppy screamed as the man appeared right in front of him. "Get away from me you...!" His sentence was cut off as the man pushed him against the wall and began to choke him.

Skeppy couldn't breathe and he couldn't focus. His crystals shrunk back down until just his fingertips were crystal. He clawed at the man's hands. The sharp crystals tipping his fingers opened up some wounds on his hands and arms.

The rest of it was a blur. People came, the man took some of his blood, he got stabbed. He tried to activate his power and give backup to the people who came to help.

He felt something within him snap. Damn, pushed it too far, he thought.

Then it all went black.

\-----------

Bad would say he was more terrified than Skeppy.

Bad had known something was going to happen. He knew it. He should have stopped Skeppy from going. Guilt began to gnaw at him.

Bad was at a dead run now. He wasn't totally sure where Skeppy was but he'd find him. Bad was sure of it. He shot glances down alleys. Most people were walking the other way, away from the scream. Bad ran faster

This was taking too long. Bad activated his power. He'd need it at the ready when he found Skeppy. He slowed to a walking pace, breathing hard. In times like these, he wished he worked out more.

He walked down an alley. "Skeppy?" He called, Four people were in this alley- a man with a hood (who he had just seen across the street a while ago), a man with pink hair and a crown, a man with a beanie, and a man with wings and a hat. Looked like a fight- Shouldn't get involved, he thought, scanning the alleyway. I need to find-

He saw Skeppy, crumpled on the ground, red blood splattered around his form.

In that instant, Bad saw red. 

He let his power surge out of his feet. The small clumps of plants dotting the alley grew out of proportion as Bad poured energy into them. He guided their growth to hold everyone else still.

The alley was quiet as Bad ran up to Skeppy. He kneeled down poured a little energy into Skeppy's wound. It knitted itself back together quickly. Bad let out a sigh of relief.

The adrenaline started to fade and exhaustion hit. Crap. He'd lost control of his power again. He'd kept it under check for so long, just to mess up now. He looked around. All eyes were on him. He said the first thing that came to mind.

"Hi, um, I'm Bad."

\----------

Techno was shocked. How in the world was there an individual with this much power who hadn't made it as a hero yet? Techno ripped the plants surrounding his arms and started to get out of the vine prison. He'd ponder that later. And also try and get this guy on his team- they needed a healer.

He grabbed some handcuffs from his belt and trudged his way over to the teleporter. He writhed in his vine prison. 

"Are you out of energy yet?" Techno said. His silence was a confirmation. Techno smirked. He pulled the other man roughly out of his plant cocoon and cuffed him in one swift movement. He looked at the situation.

One injured victim, one injured teammate, an exhausted outlier, and two people in good shape. Wil wasn't too bad, the gash didn't seem too deep. Unfortunately, he wouldn't be able to carry the unconcious victim. Techno doubted that he could carry him uninjured though. Techno would have to walk with the criminal. Phil would have to help the exhausted one- Bad- get to the Hub for the official stuff like questioning and paperwork.

That left Techno with one option- Backup. He pulled out his cellphone and called the Hub.

"Hello, this is Finn with the Guardian's hub. How can-"

"This is Techno and crew- we need help with clean-up. We're in like the third alley on Roslia Street."

"Alright, okay... Sending backup no-" Finn said. "Aw, shit. One sec." Techno heard typing. He waited. 

A few seconds later, another cuss came out of the phone, earning a soft Languge! from Bad. "Issue with that request- No one else is currently on patrol."

"Why are we the only ones on patrol? Finn, we need someone bad. We've got two injured and a criminal that needs to be taken in. Find someone dammi-"

"Uhhh, found someone, sending them now!"

"Finn I swear to god if you just sent some random-" There was a click as Finn hung up. Techno slowly lowered his phone with a sigh. "Finn's gonna send someone random. Start doing first aid."

\----------

Tommy and Tubbo were the randoms.

The duo darted down the road. It was pretty easy to find the place- they were there about two minutes after they left the hub. Tubbo called bees all the way- there were a fair amount throughout the city.

Tommy entered the alley first. He ran in, bat in hand, and surveyed the scene.

"OH. MY. GOD. IT'S TECHNOBLADE." Tommy's eyes lit up as he saw the crowned man. He ran up to him, nearly bouncing.

"Oh god." Techno stared at the excited child. A fan. Finn had sent a fan to help.

Tubbo walked in behind Tommy, a small swarm of bees nearby. Wilbur gave a small wave and Tubbo waved back.

Techno looked uncomfortable, to say the least. Tubbo skirted around him and went over to Wilbur. "I'm Tubbo, that's Tommy, we were sent here to help."

Wilbur gave a nod. "You two will do fine- We just need help getting the injured back to the Hub. Also, extra guards are always welcome. I suggest you pry your friend there off of Technoblade, though. Techno's bound to snap at him at some point." 

Tubbo nodded. "Tommy! You're carrying the injured!" Tommy looked over.

"Just a second, Tubbo! I'm talking with Technoblade."

Techno looked like he wanted out of this situation. He slid away from Tommy. "Nah kid, work's first. We can talk after," Much more quietly, he added, "Maybe."

Bad hadn't left Skeppy's side yet. He watched the other's chest rise and fall. He kept reminding himself that Skeppy was alive, that it was okay, that he'd done nothing wrong. Tommy walked over and waved at Bad. 

"Alright, I gotta take him now," Tommy said. "I'm assuming this guy's the injured."

Bad just nodded. Tommy set his bat down and picked up Skeppy. Tubbo picked up the bat. Wilbur led the walk back to the Hub. Techno was on one side of the criminal and Tubbo stood on the other, his bees spreading out above the whole group. Tommy, Phil, and Bad walked at the back in one big clump, Tommy carrying Skeppy.

The mission was completed. And as far as everyone knew, it was a success.


	4. -Four- Stitches and a Story

"Alright, good. Uhm," Dream stepped inside his new home. The apartment was nice. It felt homely. He stepped inside and looked at his new roommates. Usually, he would introduce himself and then spend the rest of the night getting comfortable in his new home. He'd had most of his stuff shipped in advance, so he should be checking up on it and unpacking now.

This time wasn't typical. Dream had a still bleeding stab wound. He winced as he took another step into the room. "Hey, by the way, can you not take me to the hospital? I've got reasons for that too, but I'll tell you when you're treating my wound."

The one with the weird sunglasses- George, probably- looked around frantically. "Uh, sure, alright, no hospital," He lowered his phone, from which he was just about to call emergency services I guess the bathroom would be the best place for treating a wound... Sap, can you help him get there?"

The one with a headband- Sapnap- nodded. He walked up to Dream and wrapped an arm around him, helping him walk over to the room. George got there first and was rapidly googling on his phone. "This's gonna put me on a watchlist somewhere, I swear," he muttered as he began to get out their first aid. They didn't have much- the basics, a roll of bandage a friend had left there, and a small sewing kit. He sorted through the new info Google had given him.

"Sap, go boil this needle and thread- we may need it for stitches. Dream, take off your hoodie- wait, maybe don't do that. Just roll it up. Sit there, in the tub. Also, Sap, can you grab me a cup and some..." George looked at his phone again. "Some Dawn dish soap."

Sapnap scrambled into action, grabbing up the needle and thread. George rummaged through the cabinet until he found some plastic gloves in the back. He washed his hands. Sapnap ran back in with a cup and the soap. 

George began to clean the wound out with soap and water. Dream winced as George poured water over the wound. Sapnap came in after he set the pot with the needle and thread on the stove.

"Hey, so can you tell us what happened, or is it illegal and you don't want to involve us?" Sapnap said.

"Sap, give him a bit of a break. The man's been stabbed!"

"No, no, it's fine. You guys have every right to know," Dream hissed as George rinsed his wound again. "It happened when I was walking in from the ferry." 

\----------

Dream was back in his city. He took in a deep breath and scanned the area he could see. He was glad to be back. His family moved out about five years ago and he wanted to make sure they settled in on the mainland before he came back. He'd figured about a month or two.

That went a bit long.

Five years later, he got to step back on the city he was raised in. He'd walked a bit into the city before someone grabbed his wrist. He'd whirled around and a tingling sensation filled his body. He was teleported into an alley.

Aw shit. Forgot about this part of the city.

The person- hooded, Dream couldn't catch their face- pressed their forearm against his throat. Not enough to choke him. He could almost laugh. It would be simple enough to get out of.

//tw needles, drug mention

"Hold still- this won't hurt if you don't struggle." The figure withdrew a needle from a small satchel. He 

"No thanks. I'm good. No drugs here. Also, I don't like the idea of my blood being on the black market." Dream 

The figure laughed and grabbed one of Dream's arm, wiping where his vein was and preparing to insert the needle.

Dream swiftly took his other hand and began to slide his mask off.

The figure looked up. Into his eyes. Perfect.

Dream knew his eyes were dangerous. He didn't like to use them often. The specifics of his power were loose- If you looked at his eyes, something painful would happen. Apparently, it felt like a headache, but much much worse. Often, blood would come from the person's ears. Sustained eye contact could kill. Dream's power didn't work on him, either.

So he imagined the attacker was shocked when he made eye contact and his brain decided to short circuit. The needle fell to the ground and shattered. Dream took advantage of the shock and pushed him away. The man had growled at him. Dream fixed his mask. 

//tw over

A split-second opening was given and taken. White-hot pain lit up Dream's side as the attacker jabbed a knife into his side. Dream inhaled sharply as the attacker removed the knife.

"Leave me alone!" Dream said, his hand going up to his mask. The attacker backed away quickly. Dream ran out of the alley. He looked around, realizing he knew no one nearby

He had some old addresses from friends he hadn't talked to in five years. He could go there. Then he remembered the new address. He walked all the way here. No one came to help- not surprising, Dream was actively trying to hide the wound.

\----------

"So yeah, then you know the rest." Dream said. George finished cleaning out the wound- they were just waiting on the needle. Sapnap went to go get the stuff to stitch the wound.

"Wait, why didn't you want to go to the hospital though?" George asked. He'd taken off his goggles. Dream wondered why he wore those inside, but quickly realized he had no reason to judge.

"It's my mask. My power isn't very accurately described in my paperwork and they make me take off my mask. It endangers them, and if one of them gets hurt, they could sue or something and I don't have the money for that right now. Also, I don't have the money for medical fees."

"Understandable. Oh, stitches time. Get ready- I think you're supposed to bite on something" Sapnap walked in with a needle and thread carefully held in a plastic gloved hand. Dream nodded and rolled up his hoodie farther, biting onto it.

Dream learned something new that day- Stitches without any anesthetic hurt. He thought the pain from the stitches would rival the pain his power caused, but he couldn't be sure.

\----------

After the stitches, they wrapped some bandages around Dream's torso and called it a job well done. The three crashed on the couch and ate room temperature pizza.

"I think that brought us closer together than any icebreakers ever could," Sapnap said. "Oh hey, Dream, we know your power, wanna hear ours?"

"Yeah, hit me." Dream said, carefully leaning forwards to grab some pizza.

"Cool! My power's heat and fire. I can control it- watch." Sapnap waved his hands and the air around Dream got a bit colder. His pizza got a bit warmer, though. "I pulled the heat out of the air and transferred it to the pizza. Can't make heat though- have to get it from elsewhere."

Dream nodded. "That's cool! Easy to use, minimal drawbacks- It's hero quality."

"George, you wanna say yours?" Sapnap said, flicking George in the shoulder. George seemed distracted. It took a second flick to get him to focus.

"Sure, sure. Basically, if I look at someone's eyes, I can see ten seconds into their future. I have to have a clear line of view- sunglasses block it. It's hard to use in large crowds- too many people, too many eyes. But it works on everyone else," George took his sunglasses off and looked at Dream's mask.

"Actually, Dream, you're the first person I've meet who I couldn't read. Because of your power, not your mask."


	5. -Five- Aftermath

When Skeppy woke up, he knew two things. One was that he didn't know where he was or how he got there. Two was that he was incredibly sore.

It took a few seconds for things to register with him. The first thing that he realized was that he was in a hospital bed. The second thing was that Bad was in the other hospital bed.

The third thing was remembering what happened the night before.

"How the fuck did I get here?" He wondered aloud. Bad blinked awake and sat up.

"Language!" he said. Then he appeared to go through the same stages of waking up that Skeppy did.

"Oh thank goodness, you're ok!" Bad said, leaning towards Skeppy. "Skeppy, I was so worried!"

"What exactly happened last night?" Skeppy asked, rubbing his neck. There was a large purple bruise where he'd been held against the wall. "I remember being basically kidnapped and there was a needle and some guys with swords and bows and then it's blank." Skeppy looked around for a second before something else clicked. "Bad, why are you here? Are you hurt?

Bad nodded. "Yeah, you passed out after that. From what I was told, I showed up just a bit after you passed out." Bad paused, then let out a small laugh. "Man, this is sorta like when I used to tell you stories all the time."

Skeppy smiled. "Yeah, it kinda is. Now, tell me the story!"

And so Bad did. He told Skeppy everything he'd seen and what the man in the beanie- Wilbur, was it?- had told him.

Bad had never been one to leave embarrassing things out of stories. That being said, he left out the part where he'd swooped in and saved the day. He replaced that with showing up after the fact and helping to heal people. That was a good excuse as to why he was in the hospital- He'd wasted his energy trying to heal up Skeppy and Wilbur.

Bad had never really realized that he was a good liar.

\----------

If there was anything Techno hated about his job, it was the paperwork. Usually, he'd pass it on to Wilbur or Phil as he went to go do other stuff, but this time he was stuck with it. He sighed as he flipped to the next- and last, thankfully- sheet.

He was almost excited that it was the last sheet. Then he realized it was still a sheet and he still had to fill it all out. He sighed again and began to fill it out. He somehow managed to focus on the work long enough to get it half done. 

Techno hit the exact halfway point before leaning back in his chair with a sigh. He stared at the ceiling for a few seconds, letting his mind wander. 

He jumped and nearly fell out of his chair when he heard a laugh-cough at the door to the small office space. Phil was standing in the doorway. Phil didn't even try and hold back a laugh this time. "How've you been doing on paperwork today?"

Techno looked over what he had written down. "Pretty good, I think. Almost done." 

"I could take over if you want." Phil walked over and looked at Techno's work. "You don't have much left, but I figured you could go hang out with the Techno Fanclub or something." 

"You'd subject me to that fate? I trusted you, Philza!" Techno said, dramatically flopping backward in his chair. Phil laughed.

"Seriously though, I'll finish this up. Wilbur's going to get victim testaments. I'll do this and the other official paperwork stuff. You go interrogate the villain or deal with the children Finn's put on our plates."

Techno sighed. He and Wilbur usually tried to do interrogations together. He really didn't like doing them on his own. "I'll go babysit for an hour or two, I guess." Techno stood up and Phil took the seat. Techno stretched and walked over to the door. "Thanks for finishing up paperwork." Techno grinned at Phil. "The rest is in the desk drawer."

"Wha-" Phil slid open the drawer, revealing a large stack of blank paperwork. "Techno!"

"See ya, nerd!" Techno quickly slid out of the door and shut it behind him. He chuckled as he walked down the hall towards the elevator. The two boys had gone home for the night and had just returned a while ago. Technoblade stepped onto the elevator and thought about why he needed to associated with the children.

Finn had technically done something illegal by sending two untrained children to help out with Guardian work. After a talk with Finn, Techno and the gang decided to slide right past that. Now they just had to start the training of the two newbies before they sent in any reports. That seemed like a good loophole to exploit in this situation.

Techno finished the elevator ride and walked into a small waiting room across the hall. He paused before he opened the door and took a breath.

Then he tossed open the door and walked in, trying to ignore the awe on the blonde's face. "Sup, nerds?" He said nonchalantly

Goddammit, I should have let Finn deal with his own problems.

\----------

Tommy was starstruck, again. He stared in complete, unhidden awe. The Technoblade was standing right there! Technoblade was Tommy's whole reason for wanting to be a hero and he was right in front of him!

Tubbo had to cough to stop a laugh from bursting out at the sight of his friend's face. Tommy's mouth was agape and for a second, Tubbo thought about asking a bee to fly into there.

"Hello, Mr. Blade," Tubbo said, trying to be more professional than his friend.

Now it was Techno's turn to laugh-cough. He sat down on the opposite side of the table. "So today I'm going to formally start your initiation into the Guardians. Your circumstances were..." Techno paused and drummed his fingers on the table, searching for the words. "Unusual to say the least."

Tommy blinked about twice before tilting his head to the side. "We're accepted already? I thought we'd have to wait a few days."

"Unusual circumstances, remember? Finn sending you to help and potentially putting you in danger was technically illegal..."

"Wait, WHAT?" Tubbo shot up in his chair.

"Technically, but that's not the point. Anyways," Techno pulled some papers out of the table's drawer and scanned over them quickly. The boys realized that those were the papers they'd filled out the night before. "Tommy and Tubbo, right?" Techno said, pointing at each in turn.

The boys nodded. "Good, good. And powers... Tubbo, it's talking to and controlling insects, specifically bees... That's an interesting one. Does it take much energy?" 

"No, it's pretty easy. Just like talking. Controlling them directly is a bit harder." Tubbo said. "I could demonstrate, but there's no bugs here."

"Ah, good, good. And Tommy..." Techno's smile faltered, confusion clear on his face. "Hold on, let me reread thi-"

Tommy cut him off, his face a bit darker. "Power unknown, you read it right."

"Oh," Techno said, looking at the boy. He probably wouldn't have been accepted if it wasn't for Finn sending him. "What else do you do?"

Tommy's eyes lit back up. "I hit things with a baseball bat. I'm pretty good at it, too. Wanna see?"

Techno stood up. "Sure. Hit me."

Tommy stood up and prepared to swing. Then he stopped for a second. "Are you sure?" Techno gave a nod and Tommy took a breath. Then he swung.

Techno caught it before it hit him. Tommy blinked for a second before trying to pull his bat back. He couldn't. "Good swing. It would've been a really good hit if you weren't fighting me."

Tommy was, again, starstruck. "That is SO cool, Techno!"

Techno smirked and nodded. "Anyways, you've got potential. Go see Finn in the lobby to get some IDs. He'll also give you a basic schedule. My team will be taking you on as trainees."

The boys nodded and started towards the door. Tubbo stopped halfway there. "Wait a sec, who's Finn? I didn't see him in the lobby when we came in."

"Oh, you saw him alright. Although you might have thought he was a she. He's a shapeshifter- male-identifying. He likes to stay in a feminine form though- something about trolling people."

There was a pause. The reactions of the two boys were very different. 

Tubbo said, "Ah, well he got us! That's an interesting use of powers!"

Tommy said, "WHAT THE FUCK."

And Techno laughed as Tubbo pulled Tommy out of the room to go get their new IDs and schedules.

Techno made a mental amendment. He had thought this training would be torture for him. Now he wasn't so sure.

\----------

Sapnap had decided- Dream was pretty cool. He'd figured this out when he woke up. The main cause of this decision was the fact that Dream was making breakfast.

They mumbled good mornings to each other. Sapnap sat down and watched Dream finish cooking. A companionable silence fell across the room. A few minutes later, Dream slid a plate of bacon and eggs in front of Sapnap.

"Thanks, bro. Do you cook often?" Sapnap said, picking up his fork.

"It's a hobby. I think it's a pretty nice way to spend time."

Sapnap took a bite of eggs. "These are good! Finally, we'll have a decent cook around here."

"I thought George cooked." Dream said, portioning out the rest of the food.

"Oh, he does. It doesn't mean that it's edible. There's a reason we ordered pizza for your first meal with us."

"Are you talking about me?" George said, yawning as he walked into the room. He pushed his glasses over his eyes and looked at the two others.

The other two were silent. Dream ate a piece of bacon and slid the plate of food in George's direction.

"...What?" George said, clearly confused as to what was going on. The other two broke down into laughter.

"God, George, we were saying you're bad at cooking." Sapnap ate a piece of bacon. "Dream is our cook from now on. He made us breakfast." Sap gestured at the other plate.

"My cooking's not that bad..." George said, sitting down and taking a piece of bacon. The other two laughed. 

"What's the plan for today?" Dream asked. "I don't know much about day-to-day around here yet."

George finished his bacon and looked over at Dream. "I work in record-keeping for the Guardians- our local superhero organization. I figured I'd bring you along to report your case if that's alright with you?" Dream gave a nod. "Cool, we leave at about 10:30."

"I work as a barista at a specialty cafe. My powers fit in really well there, mostly I just reheat crap." Sap sighed. "The cafe's all about food made with powers. I'm the only one with a power not about making or controlling specific foods, so I'm basically used as an oven." Sapnap leaned back in his chair. "Thinking about quitting and finding a job with the Guardians soon though."

"I do freelance coding right now," Dream said. "Maybe we could all get jobs there or something. I'm sure they need someone to help automate stuff." 

"That's not a bad idea, actually. I'll bring it up with some of my superiors!" George took a bite of egg. "That'd be really cool though, if we all worked together."

"Heck yeah, it would! Hey George, by the way, did you see..." Sapnap starting bantering with George.

Dream was really glad his new roommates could only see half of his face because he was pretty sure it would be a dead giveaway of his terror. The Guardians hub might as well have been a death sentence for him.

Especially if He saw Dream. If He saw Dream, He would know that it was Dream, no matter how much Dream changed his identity. 

_Guess I just gotta be a really good faker, then._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> aahhhh!! hi everyone!! yall have been so so so nice in the comments!  
> I'm very bad about responding, but i read them all!!  
> tysm!!! really glad you're enjoying this so far!!


	6. -Six- Interlude

The three roommates finished breakfast and started to get ready for the day, changing into proper clothes and checking up on Dream's stitches. They got together a plan. All of them were going to go to Sapnap's work, drop him off, and then go to George's work.

The first hitch came when they got to Sapnap's work. He walked in there, smiled pleasantly at his co-workers, and handed the woman at the counter a note. "Give this to the boss, please!" he said, his smile seeping into his voice. Then he walked right back out.

George and Dream were a bit ahead. George was giving Dream a briefing of what was going to go down once they got to the hub. "So, Dream, I can do all the paperwork and all that stuff for you- I just need your testament. And also, if you're interested in a coding job, I can hook you up with an interview with-"

"HEY, WAIT UP!" Sapnap ran up the sidewalk. He quickly caught up with his friends.

"Dude, I thought you were going to work. What happened to that?" Dream asked, looking over at Sap.

"Oh yeah, I decided to quit."

"Oh, cool." There was a pause before the news seemed to sink in. "Wait, what?" George whipped around.

"Yeah, I figured I'd just get the job at your workplace and call it a day-"

"JUST BECAUSE I WORK THERE DOESN'T GUARANTEE YOU A JOB, IDIOT."

"Huh. Well man, I sure hope I do good at this job interview."

"...You are an absolute idiot, Sapnap. Or should I say... Snapchat."

"No, you shouldn't say." Sapnap flicked George and Dream laugh-wheezed at their antics.

\----------

After a few minutes, they arrived at the Hub. George walked in and waved hello to Finn, who was handing some paperwork out to some people. He gestured for Sap and Dream to follow him in and led them to an elevator. They had to wait for it to come back down.

It dinged and opened. Out stepped a tall pink-haired man. Dream felt his blood go cold. Technoblade was here, right in front of him.

_Oh God, he's going to notice me. I should have never come. He is going to murder me on the spot and George and Sap will be killed for association. I need to GO. I need to GO. I need to GO._

"Hey, George, who're they?" He looked over Dream and Sap. Sap gave a wave.

"Ah, hey Techno! Just some friends, looking for a job. We're kinda understaffed so I figured here would be good."

"Cool, cool. I'm gonna start training some new nerds. You may have seen them in the lobby."

"Oh, nice! Are you gonna put them through Phil first?"

"You know it." Techno gave a wave and started walking by.

And that was it. They walked past Techno, and he didn't even spare another glance. The trio walked into the elevator. Dream let out a breath. The elevator doors shut with a ding and Dream felt his blood start to flow again. A few moments passed, elevator music playing in the background. The door opened again. The trio stepped out.

Dream's panic was replaced with a sense of victory as it hit him- He'd just gotten past Technoblade. He'd done it! He walked into the records room with a skip in his step.

_He was sure that if he made it past Techno, he could do almost anything._

\----------

Bad was extremely happy to be out of the Hub. He was so tired of heroes questioning him and being stuck in the bed. Wilbur had been nothing but professional, but Bad was just tired of being asked to say the same things over and over.

He stretched as Skeppy led him into a small cafe. The Hub may be where some of the best superheroes work, but the food wasn't good. Bad had barely even touched his breakfast, so Skeppy offering to treat him to a muffin or two from a nice cafe sounded like a perfect afternoon.

Skeppy went up to the counter and ordered for them. He already knew Bad's order, so Bad went and got them a table. A few minutes later, Skeppy returned with their drinks and a chocolate chip muffin for each of them. Bad accepted them gladly. The pair sat in companionable silence as they people watched. 

Bad's eyes flicked to the television on the wall of the Cafe. It was basic news- Some criminals had tried to rob a bank. Apparently, Schlatt had stopped them- He was reportedly visiting some friends. The next story started but was cut off as the TV flashed a bright red. 'BREAKING NEWS' floated across the TV in big block letters.

Skeppy looked up at the TV as well. The news anchor's face appeared on the television. "Good afternoon," they said, although their voice did not give the impression that the afternoon was good. "We are reporting live on a recent murder. Evya Crowaiz, age 21, was found dead in an alley near 5th Street." 

**//tw drug mention, needle mention**

The anchor's face vanished, replaced with a picture of a smiling girl. A smiling girl who was now dead. "Evya was found with a knife buried in her side. A mark on her arm indicated she had recently had a needle in her arm. No traces of any drugs were found in her system, however. She seemed to be missing around three pints of blood."

**//tw over**

"Seems familiar," Skeppy said, taking a sip of his coffee.

"The knife was marked with this symbol-" The hilt of the knife flashed on the screen.

"No fingerprints were found. This case is odd in particular die to Evya's power. She could control the strength of a person's powers. Power dampening, it is called. If you have any leads, call the Guardian Hub at..."

Bad looked back at the table. "Oh, that poor girl. I guess we were lucky to get out of there last night, huh?"

Skeppy nodded silently. The duo left the cafe and started back to their apartment.

They got in, Bad shut the door, and Skeppy looked him in the eyes and said, "Bad, I wanna be a vigilante."

There was a pause before Bad laughed. "Good joke, Skeppy. Almost got me."

"I'm not joking."

"...oh."

Skeppy walked away from the door and began to pace in front of their couch. "You saw that report. Someone else was murdered last night, the same way I would have been. Illosia is supposed to be one of the safest places on the globe, but there was only one hero squad out last night." He ran a hand through his hair. "And they were with me, so they couldn't help her."

"Skeppy, it's not your fault. You don't need to do this." Bad hadn't moved from his spot by the door.

"That's where you're wrong, Bad. I do. If the heroes can't keep people safe, that means it falls on people like me, with strong powers. I can handle myself as a vigilante. I just need your silence and help to heal."

"I- Skeppy, I can't just let you do this!" Bad clenched his fist. "You barely handled yourself against your attacker. I- I won't let you?"

"...I thought I knew you better than this." Skeppy stopped pacing and looked Bad directly in the eyes. Bad looked away.

"Skeppy..."

"No, Bad. I'm doing this- you can't stop me. Call the Guardians on me. I'll just fight them off, too."

"...I- you- Skeppy- Fine."

"...What?"

"Do it. But," Skeppy sighed, but Bad just kept talking. "You need to learn how to fight. You can turn small things into crystal blades, right?"

"Yeah?"

"I can throw knives. I can teach you the basics, to help your fighting skills. And if you do this vigilante stuff, I want to come with."

Skeppy balked. "Bad, no!"

Bad gave a smile. "If you can do it, I should be able to go too. And I can be useful!"

Skeppy's resolve on this issue broke fairly easily. Bad made good points, and Skeppy had already gotten the main thing he wanted. "Fine. You can come along."

And with that, two people decided they were going to be heroes.

\----------

Tommy and Tubbo were hyped.

They'd gotten their IDs and schedules. Tommy wasn't very happy with them. 

"What're we, back in school or something?" He read over it again. "We gotta be here from eight to three!"

"Yep." An unknown voice came from behind Tommy. He froze and slowly turned around. Phil stood behind Tommy, a dangerous glint in his eye. "Just like school. And I'll be your teacher."

"I feel like this is going to be bad," Tubbo said.

"Oh, Tubbo," Phil smiled. "You don't know the half of it."

\----------

Phil was a great teacher, alright. He'd be amazing for a military school.

The day started with protocol lessons- When to engage when to call for backup, how to work with their team. They got 30 minutes to study the material. Then there was a pop quiz. It would have been fine, but Phil pushed it an extra mile.

Every wrong question was five pushups.

After that was true physical training. They went to the Hub's gym and did a workout devised by Phil. Tommy was pretty sure it was a form of torture that Phil put new recruits through to toughen them up. 

Then it was lunchtime. That was its own form of torture. Phil was merciful- He told the boys a trick of the trade. The Sleepy Bois, who Tubbo and Tommy were honorary members of, had lifetime free meals at the local fast food places after they'd saved most of them.

After lunch, more physical training. Specifically, power training. Phil pushed Tubbo to his absolute limit. The boy was swaying on his feet, he'd been worked so hard.

Tommy was also pushed, just in a different way. He was given a portion of Techno's daily training to do. It was easy for the self-proclaimed blood god, but for Tommy?

It was a grueling set of tasks that seemed nearly impossible. He barely got done with it by the time the two were supposed to leave. He and Tubbo stumbled out of the Hub after a short set of cooldown exercises. They got home and immediately started trying to look up how to reduce aches from workouts.

The boys nearly passed out before dinner got there. Then they remembered they had been assigned a section of the handbook to read.

Training to be a superhero was much harder than the boys had thought.

\----------

Wilbur was so glad to be done with Bad and Skeppy. One was polite, almost painfully so. One so clearly didn't want to be there and answered no questions.

He walked out of the room with a sigh and bumped straight into Techno. "Oh good," said Techno, stepping aside. "Ready to interrogate?"

"Oh yeah. It's great stress relief, you know?"

"...Not so sure, but if it works for you, we're good." Techno smiled and Wilbur laughed. They went up to the holding cell.

They looked through one-way glass at the figure. Fundy stood on guard duty.

Fundy was the jack of all trades for the Hub. He had many skills, from coding (although he could use some help, trying to rewrite the whole system was hard) to music. Wilbur supposed that made up for his power- He was a foxman, whether he wanted to be or not.

"Wil, Techno, welcome! The crim's been sulking on the bed the whole time. No noise. They did look around a bit. I think they realized that they're too high up to teleport down."

Techno nodded. "We've got it from here, Fundy." The foxman nodded walked to the elevator.

Techno and Wilbur walked into the room. The figure looked up, but the cowl of the hood still covered their face. Wilbur started the interrogation.

"Just answer us and you won't be hurt." He said, holding out his hands and tried to use some small sound bursts to push their hood down. It fell around their neck.

"Oh god." Techno's eyes widened Wilbur's hands went to his mouth in shock.

Sitting there with a grin was a person who was turning into dust. Wilbur wasn't sure how he didn't notice it before, to be honest. Small piles of dust were dotted around the person. Half of their head was gone, and their hands seemed to be gone as well. They grinned at the two heroes.

"Didn't expect this, huh?" Their voice sounded odd, too. The rasp of their old voice glitched in and out, mixed with a feminine voice that was tinted with a hard to place the accent.

"Who- what happened?" Wilbur asked. Was this a curse? Was this person dying?

The figure laughed. "Wouldn't you like to know, music boy? Fucking idiots, like I'd give you any info." The figure stood up and started towards the pair. Their legs were fine, at least.

"Stay back," Techno said, stepping in front of Wilbur.

"I'm not going to hurt him. Just figured I should point out all your mistakes before I go. For one, you forgot to look for my bag. I tele'd it out way back when I was trapped in the plant." They took another step forward. Techno braced for a fight. Wil began to set up a vice with his power.

"Two, you didn't look under my hood earlier. You may have gotten me- Real me, not just this me, one of the King's copies."

The figure took another step forward. Wil finished prepping his vice grip of sound. Techno signaled him to set it off. They didn't know what this person was capable of.

The noise crushed inwardly, but the figure just laughed. They fell to their knees as their legs began to dissolve. The noise seemed to accelerate it. Soon enough, they were only half a head and the top of a torso.

"Your last mistake was that- acting so rashly." The figure laughed again. "Thought you knew better than to be rash, Wilbur." 

They were just a mouth now. A grinning, horrible mouth. They spat out a device- a voice changer and spoke in their true voice. Was that accent Irish? It was definitely feminine.

"Anyways, the Assembly sends their regards." They (she?) laughed again. Why did they find this so funny?

"Buh-bye boys."

And they were gone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> uh yea! Hope you enjoyed!! see you next ch!!! 
> 
> -Sunny


	7. -Seven- A Diffrent Perspective

The room was a bit too packed.

A man sat on a throne in the middle of it, focusing intently. He let out a sigh of relief and leaned back in his chair, the crown on his head shifting slightly.

"And... she's gone." He said, stretching. He adjusted his sunglasses. "Your copies did great, M." 

A purple-haired woman near the front laughed loudly. "Fucking knew they would. Real shame about the girl though- She caught me off guard." 

"It's fine," the crowned man- the King- said. "You still got a bunch of resources to the drop spots. TapL should be back with them any time now. Fundy already brought one bag in."

The foxman smiled. "Just doing my job. Oh yeah, N, when are you planning to make a move?"

A blond girl with a soft voice spoke up. "Soon, I'm waiting to get one of those three alone." She fiddled with her weapons- large sickles with a pink version of the group's logo. "Wilbur seems like the best option for me."

"Makes sense." A blond man spoke up from the back. He had a large medalion around his neck. "He seems like he'd be easy to lure away. Anyways, KJ, what's the news on trying to infiltrate with Foxy over there?"

"Huh?" A brown haired man in a colorful hoodie looked up. "Oh, my progress? I submitted an application, now I'm just waiting to be accepted as an intern. I had to lie about my power- put something like going invisible in the dark."

The door opened and everyone in the room tensed. The man at the door wore a brown and green hoodie with a mask underneath.

"I'm back guys. Got M's drops." He removed his mask and set five bags on a table.

"Hell yeah!" The purple haired girl- M- did a fist pump. "I'm doing the work!"

"Great job so far, by the way." A blonde man in the back said, his voice tinged with a Scottish accent. "How much more do you think we'll need?"

"I think we'll be good soon." A man near the front spoke up. He was brunette with a British accent. "We need a few pints of blood like that girl's."

"I hope we get done soon." Said a hat wearing man in the back. "The media's watching us now."

The King nodded. "We need to be more careful. We most likely won't meet like this again for a while. M, you'll tele us all out?"

M nodded and gave a dramatic bow. "I'll be your transport out, unless you live here." She coughed and looked at Fundy, KJ, and the King. "Then you can just stay."

One by one, she took each person by the hand and tele'd them out of the room. Soon, everyone was out of the room.

Except for the king.

He sighed and looked through the bags. He looked especially close at the bloodstained one- a girl had died for their cause already. He hoped it would be worth it. He looked around, ensuring no one could see him. Then he took off his sunglasses.

His eyes were a pure, startling white.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A glimpse on the other side!  
> This chapter's a bit shorter!  
> I'm planning on releasing one ch a day until we're caught back up. This will include the bonus ch I wrote!  
> hope you enjoyed, as always!  
> -Sunny


	8. -Eight- Over the Months

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> //from here on out, a gun tw and a needle tw will be in effect. This stays for the rest of the story. stay safe!

Five months passed before anyone knew it. Summer turned to fall, which turned to winter.

A lot had happened in the meantime, for all of our groups.

Tommy and Tubbo got their stuff from home shipped and made their shared apartment a home. Tubbo started a few hives of bees on the roof of the Hub, after a failed attempt at the apartment. Tommy moved on from a wooden bat to a metal one, which one of the new guys at the hub (Snapmap, if Tommy remembered right) helped him weld nails onto.

The job at the Hub involved more than they thought it would. They worked with Phil for another three months. They both learned how to actually fight, along with getting very physically fit. They also memorized the entire Guardian handbook, down to the letter.

Actual hero work was not what they thought it would be, either. They were expecting battles against villains and rescue missions. They ended up handling noise complaints, running paperwork around, or just handling things the other heroes didn't want to do. It paid well though- The duo had plenty of funds now.

Patrol nights were the best. They'd go out with the Sleepy Bois every Friday and patrol. Usually, it was calm. Illosia was fairly warm year-round, so it wasn't too bad during the winter. Even if nothing happened, they got to hang out. 

The duo hadn't expected the heroes to be so friendly. They found nothing but kindness from everyone at the Hub. Finn and Fundy helped the duo get used to the hero process. They often found themselves hanging out with the new intern, Karl. 

The Sleepy Bois gained a sort of brotherly relationship with the duo (Informally named the Clingys because they stuck together so much). They frequented each others apartments and often ate meals together after work.

They did see some action, though. Mainly, it was fights with minor store robbers, clean-up, and people resisting arrest for small crimes. It was enough for Tubbo, but Tommy wanted to do more. When Techno asked what more meant, Tommy just shrugged. 

He didn't know what more was yet, but he knew he wanted it.

\----------

Sleepy Bois had their own issues.

Mostly, the rise in crime. Attacks like the one they fought off the night they met the Clingys started happening left and right. The only thing that changed was the addition of calling cards. They were all similar- the skull-biohazard symbol, but with a twist. One was pink, one was crowned, one was wildly multicolored, one had headphones, one was beaver-tailed.

No one could figure out what they meant. The best guess came from Wil- he figured it could be different members of a group. The woman who'd dissolved had mentioned something about "The Assembly." Maybe they were doing this as some sort of organized crime. That's the only theory that made sense.

But why did they want blood? Was it a statement? That was still a mystery.

Techno trained with Phil and the Clingys a lot. He liked to show off to Tommy. He hadn't been so sure about the fanboy at first but he had to admit, it was nice to have his ego appealed to. He worked on strength training with Tommy the most. Tommy was doing really well.

Techno could just about bench-press both of the Clingys. He appreciated Tommy's efforts, though.

Wilbur was doing a lot of stuff. He was investigating the recent attacks, mostly. He met George, who was the main record keeper for the hubs and worked closely with him. Apparently, George's roommate was attacked but survived. Wilbur tried to meet up with this guy, Dream, but they never seemed to be able to pick a time.

Wil worked closely with George to try and set up a timeline. It started with the attack of Dream, then there was the attack they were at, then the murder. Then it got tricky. There were attacks without precise times and attacks that were probably not even reported. There were a few more murders- not many, so Wil and George concluded that was not the goal of the organization.

The trail went cold soon. Attacks stopped happening. Or they stopped being reported. It was hard to tell. Soon enough, a few disappearances cropped up, but things were quiet. Wilbur didn't like it. Something was up.

Wilbur also continued his busking. He really didn't need to, but he enjoyed playing music and the money was nice. It was hard to fit into his schedule, but he found time.

Phil spend most of his time working with the Clingys. He was with them almost all the time, whether he was helping them learn tactics or making them spar. He'd been the first of the Sleepy Bois to be a hero, and he'd helped to train each of them.

Phil wasn't from Illosia originally- few were, with it being a new city and all. He'd been one of the first heroes here and he'd helped build the base for the Guardians. He'd also done some hero work before that, specifically in the so-called 'prototype' of Illosia. He'd spent five years there, before the incident... He didn't like to think about that.

The Guardians organization had been wonderful to see it at it's peak. It was less wonderful now. But the Clingys were living proof that they were probably on the up. Probably.

Phil kept training with the Clingys after the three-month regime, but to a lesser extent. They usually got together with the rest of the Sleepy Bois to train in the morning. After lunch, Tommy usually asked him to train some more. Phil didn't mind- the Clingys were usually friendly, even if they (mostly Tommy) had a harsh shell.

They may have been individually busy, but they always made time for the rest of the group. Every Friday, before patrol with the Clingys, Phil cooked dinner and they all ate together, laughing and talking about their weeks.

\---------

Bad and Skeppy were preparing, but this time for something different.

They spent their time trying to figure out how to be vigilantes. Skeppy kept doing his street show to bring in money. Bad had a job as a florist, but the street show brought in more money than that. 

Bad spent time outside of work researching. He looked up ways to fight, how to do first aid, and where to buy some of the things they'd need. He figured he could pass most of this stuff off as research for a book. He also bought some things- A new set of throwing knives, a new gun (he also took another gun safety course, just to refresh.) a new hoodie and a black facemask for him. He bought Skeppy a blue hoodie and a blue facemask.

The first thing Skeppy did was draw a mouth on the facemask, much to Bad's dismay.

Bad also bought a gym membership for them both. He got them both into a routine of going there every morning before they went off to work. Despite Bad being resistant to the whole vigilante plan at first, he got into it, maybe even more than Skeppy. He was very enthusiastic about all of this once he forgot how much danger it could put them in.

Bad taught Skeppy how to throw knives, too. It was mutually frustrating. Bad already had the required muscle memory and it was hard to remember that Skeppy hadn't developed it yet. Skeppy got frustrated easily when things didn't go his way and was impatient with himself.

They made progress, though. They might have made it slowly, but they made it. Skeppy ended up hitting the bullseye most of the time, instead of never. The duo got noise complaints the first time he hit it, both of them whooped so loud. It ended up being a past-time to practice, instead of a burden.

Skeppy really didn't do much else. He continued his street show, slowly adding in acts related to knife throwing. He wasn't as focused on trying to become a vigilante as Bad was, which was ironic because Skeppy was the one who brought it up.

That's not to say Skeppy wasn't trying, though. He slowly turned his street shows into small, public practice sessions. He also went to the gym with Bad every day, and he went on his own time as well. Skeppy was doing things on a smaller scale.

By the time the five months had passed, Bad was just about ready to start working. Skeppy had been ready for five months, but he'd held it off thus far. The anticipation was building for both of them. They were oh so excited to be going on their first mission.

\----------

Sapnap did manage to get a job at the Hub. He got a nice place at the front desk with Finn, occasionally doing some guard work with Fundy. He still got an earful from George about quitting without a backup plan, though. 

Sap liked his new job- the system was easy to learn, he had a fair bit of free time to do whatever he wanted, and he got free lunch. He was adamant that the food from the cafeteria wasn't as bad as everyone said it was. Everyone else told him he had no sense of taste. 

There were a lot more benefits to the Hub than he thought there would be. He got full access to the gym, the records, and (technically) the armory. The heroes pushed back against that last part, making sure he knew he couldn't take anything. They didn't mind him looking, though.

Dream spent most of the first few months doing two things. The first thing was re-doing all of the hub's systems, so things could actually be found. This took him a while- he had to rewrite the entire system from scratch.

The second was panicking about Technoblade. Dream made an effort to avoid him, but Techno always seemed to pop up and scare the shit out of Dream without even trying. Techno just seemed mildly confused about why his "Hello!" would make the new coder jump.

It was hard, at first, when the mere thought of Techno and him being alone in the same room would send shivers down Dream's spine. It got better quickly, though. He realized The Blade, the man who'd haunted him for many years had no idea who he was.

That was a good thing, but if he had to be honest, it kinda hurt. He was hoping to have left some sort of psychological impact on the city's main protector after the events that caused Dream to have to leave his city.

Once Dream got more comfortable in his new position, he found a new role in the Hub. He took over the kitchen. It was just an extra thing to do when he got bored, at first, but soon after he started, everyone was begging him to keep going. The previous chef (it was George) started taking mini-lessons from Dream.

George was a bit salty about having his secondary job taken, but he didn't really mind once the lessons started. He was actually glad to have a bit more free time- he repurposed that into time with Wilbur.

He and Wilbur worked together to try and figure out what was going on with the attacks. Wilbur was good at puzzling things out and figuring out what had happened at what times. George was good at knowing where info was and getting it to people.

The pair worked together every spare moment of their workdays, and some moments of their personal days as well. At first, it seemed like they were making progress. Then the trail dropped off. It was unfortunate, but George figured it would just be like many of the other cold cases he'd seen through the years. Wilbur kept on it, though. George still supported him but pulled back a bit.

If a case went cold, it would either heat up again eventually or die off. George thought it'd be the first one. No, he didn't think. Even without his foresight, he knew.

\----------

He would be right. The Assembly was just waiting. They made a couple of moves so far, but they were plotting out a big one.

They got some more blood and a few sources of blood. A few of the members were iffy about the ethics of all of this, but they were overruled. Despite having a member nicknamed The King, they were democratic about it.

They didn't get to meet up often. Most communication came from coded letters passed between each hidden drop boxes.

They did get some good news throughout all of this. Another one of their members had infiltrated the Hub. Karl Jacobs, formerly know as KJ for privacy was in and actively spying. That meant they had two sets of eyes and ears on the inside.

They'd set their goal a while ago, and they were so, so close to it. The Assembly as a group buzzed with nervous energy whenever they managed to meet. They'd started leaving calling cards after they borrowed some blood. They were at that late-term stage where they would need the media to know them.

They were sure people would want to know who they were when they completed their goals. Some, (M, mostly,) had mentioned starting autobiographies to publish later. They were sure the people would buy them. How could you not want to know your saviors? To know why they did what they did?

Well, the people wouldn't see them as saviors in the beginning, but they'd get there.

It was all just a matter of precise moves and time.

And oh, did the Assembly have time. They had all of the time in the world, much unlike the Guardians. It was truly unfortunate that it had to happen this way, but their time?

It was running out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N
> 
> oooh timeskip
> 
> im also going to upload the bonus chapter today!
> 
> That's all for today! hope you enjoyed and see you in the next (bonus) chapter :)
> 
> Also also!! if you'd like, you can follow my twt! @aceofsun1  
> i just tweet about the Minecraft men and occasionally my real life!
> 
> -Sunny


	9. -Bonus- Feverish

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just a bonus chapter in which Tommy and Tubbo get snowed in. It seems to be going fine, until Tommy notices something seems off about Tubbo

Illosia didn't get much snow, so it was odd when they announced that the city was going to get at least a foot of it. The panic before the snowstorm was immense. Tubbo and Tommy barely managed to buy supplies for the weekend at the corner store, the crowds were so intense. Tubbo never really liked the cold, so he tried to rush them back inside. Patrols had been canceled due to the weather, so they just sat inside and chilled.

Wilbur had advised the Clingys to keep their phones charged and keep a few blankets handy in case the power went out. They pretty muchly went to go hang out in their own rooms until one of them got hungry and decided to cook the mac and cheese they'd bought.

Tommy was listening to music and playing some games, just vibing, until about eight, when he went to go make the mac and cheese. He knocked on Tubbo's door, opening it after Tubbo gave a soft, "Come in!"

"Hey Tubbo, I'm gonna make dinner now," Tommy said, not really looking in the room. Tubbo sniffed.

"Alright. I'm gonna lay down on the couch and wait," Tubbo sniffled again and Tommy walked to the kitchen. He heard Tubbo shuffle out and crash down on the couch.

Tommy finished starting the mac and cheese and walked over to look at Tubbo. He paused as he saw the other boy. "Holy-" He looked over his friend, who was huddled in a blanket, deathly pale and sweating.

"What?"

"Tubbo, you look like shit."

"I haven't been feeling well the past-" he sniffled "Few days but you don't need to be-" he sniffled "Rude about it." He pulled the blankets tighter around himself. "It's so cold in here."

"No, it's not. Do we have a thermometer here?" Tommy walked over and put a hand on his friend's forehead. "You're burning up."

"Heh, you're acting like-" Tubbo sniffled again, "You're acting like my mom." This time, Tubbo coughed.

"Stay there for a second. I'm going to go get a thermometer." Tommy went into the kitchen and dug through the junk drawers. Thank god Tubbo had the common sense to buy them a thermometer when they first got there. He went back to Tubbo, who hadn't moved.

"Alright, you know how to do this." He stuck the thermometer in Tubbo's mouth. Once it beeped, he took it out. "102 degrees? Is that bad?" He ran into his room and grabbed his phone. After a quick google, he concluded that yes, it was.

"Alright, Tubbo, I don't know how to do this," Tommy said. "So I'm gonna google this. And if your temperature gets any higher, I'm gonna see if one of the Sleepy Bois can come over."

Tubbo nodded. "Tommy?" he coughed. "Can you get me some tea?"

"Yeah, Tubbo. Let me go make it." Tommy got up and started brewing some tea. He also got Tubbo a pitcher of ice water, mainly because Google said that was good. When the tea was done, he put a bit of the honey from one of Tubbo's hives in it. He did that for the same reason as the water.

He brought both things over to Tubbo and Tubbo sat up to drink the tea. "Is there honey in this?" Tommy nodded. Tubbo nodded back, seeming a bit unsure. "Huh. I love bees." He paused for a second, blinking, before finishing the tea. He then settled back down. They sat together and watched TV for a few hour hours. 

Tommy had totally forgot about his mac and cheese- it sat on the stove, growing cold. He was more worried about his friend. He contemplated calling Wilbur or Phil or somebody right then, but decided to wait. Tubbo broke the silence with a cough.

"Tommy?"

"Yeah, Tubbo?"

"This island sure is... floaty, huh?" He coughed.

"...I'm going to check your temperature again, alright?"

"Mhm." Tommy picked up the thermometer again and checked Tubbo's temp again. "You're at 103 now... close to 104." Tommy googled some more, looking over at Tubbo every few seconds. The other boy looked unfocused and tired. He was still pale and sweating, sniffling every few seconds.

Tommy decided to forgo the googling and called Wilbur instead. "Please, pick up... Please-"

In another apartment across the city, Wilbur picked up his phone. "Tommy? It's nearly midnight. What'd you need?"

"Hey, big Wil-"

"Stop calling me that, you said I would be Big Dubs. What'd you need?"

"Tubbo's sick, and I don't know what to do," Tommy said, trying to keep the panic out of his voice.

"How sick is he? What symptoms does he have?" Wilbur said with a yawn.

"He's sneezing sometimes, sniffling a lot, coughing... oh, and he has a fever."

"A fever? How bad?"

"...It's about 103 degrees."

"What? 103? Tommy, you should have messaged me earlier!"

"S-Sorry! I thought I could handle it! Anyways, what should I do now?"

"...I'm coming over. Put an ice-pack on his forehead and keep him hydrated."

"Alri-" _Click_. Wilbur hung up before Tommy could finish.

\----------

Wilbur stood up quickly. "Is everything alright?" Phil asked, having heard half of the conversation.

"No, Tubbo's running a fever of _103 fucking degrees_ and Tommy didn't think to tell me until now." Wilbur walked to the window and peered through the blinds. "Shit, fuck! How am I supposed to get through this?"

Outside, there was about a foot of snow blocking the road. And more snow was falling by the second. Phil frowned. "I can't fly in this. How far away are they, ten minutes by car?"

"Yeah, we can't walk that far in this, either. Do you think there could be some mad-lad out there who'd give us a ride?"

Phil shrugged. "There's a chance. Get some stuff, pack an overnight bag. If we go, there's no way we're getting back until this clears up." Wil gave a nod.

"Alright. Techno already went to bed, right? I doubt he'll wanna come but might as well ask him." Now it was Phil's turn to nod. The two split up and started getting ready to go. 

Phil got his bag packed quickly, stuck his head in Techno's room, and asked if he wanted to come, to which there was a sleepy, "Nah, thanks." Phil was the one to check and see if anyone was insane enough to be offering a rideshare in this weather.

There was one car on the roads. Phil ordered that thing as quickly as he could. They now had an ETA- Fifteen minutes to the Clingy's house. Five minutes for the ride to get there.

Wilbur filled up his bag with things he thought would help- something for the fever, a decongestant, cough medicine, and some other things. He also decided to bring his guitar. Once both of them were ready, they went down to the small lobby of their apartment and waited.

Soon enough, a large car with a plow attached drove up. Phil's phone dinged. This was their car. The pair stepped out into the cold and rushed into the car.

"You two are the only people I've seen needing to go anywhere tonight," the driver said as the car began to move forward.

"Yeah, our idiot..." Wilbur stopped for a second, trying to figure out how to refer to the Clingys. Friends didn't sound right, but he didn't want to lie to much when there was no reason to. "Cousins are stuck in their apartment and needed some stuff." The driver nodded.

Wilbur pulled out his phone and sent a quick text to Tommy. _OMW._

Tommy didn't get that message. He was too busy panicking. He'd made an icepack with some assistance from Google. He was glad he'd looked it up- apparently putting the ice directly Tubbo's forehead would have not been good.

The bad news was that his phone had died, leaving him no way to contact Wilbur. Tommy was pacing the apartment, nervous energy radiating off of him. He was really hoping Wilbur would get there soon.

Tubbo watched him pace, his gaze unfocused. Occasionally, he would say something, but it was mostly just the ramblings of a fever. He did say some things that made sense- asking for water, mostly. But a lot of it was coughs and talking about bugs.

Soon enough, there was a knock at the door. Tommy basically fell over himself trying to answer it. Tubbo laughed shakily, then coughed. Wilbur stood in the door, Philza behind him. Tommy stepped aside and let them in. 

Wilbur walked over to Tubbo. "You've done a good job, Tommy." He felt the boy's forehead and nodded. "Go get some sleep."

"...Can I sleep out here?" Tommy asked, a bit sheepish. He was worried about his friend. Wilbur paused for a second and nodded.

"Get your blankets. We can all sleep out here tonight." He said, a small smile on his face. "Me and Phil brought sleeping bags." Wilbur looked through the bag he brought and gave Tubbo some medicine- something to break the fever. 

Phil had wandered into the kitchen, where he cleaned up the cold mac and cheese Tommy had made earlier. He made some sandwiches- just PB&J, nothing special- and brought them out for Wilbur and Tommy. Phil wasn't sure if giving Tubbo a sandwich would be a good idea, so he made and brought him some chicken soup.

They all settled down in the living room, laying out their blankets and sleeping bags. They chatted and joked as they ate their meal. Tubbo seemed to get more lucid, which was a good sign.

Soon enough, everyone was ready to sleep. Conversation stalled, and Wilbur had an idea. He picked up his guitar and began strumming a song he wrote a while ago. He used his power to keep it from leaking into the other apartments, while also making it softly reverberate around the apartment.

Softly, he began to sing. The others went quiet as he started.

Everyone seemed to settle down and by the end of the song, faint snoring sounded through the room. Wilbur was the only one left awake. He hummed the tune of the song and walked over to Tubbo, checking his temperature again. His fever had seemed to have broke, thank goodness.

Wilbur laid down and soon enough, he was asleep as well.

\----------

The next morning, Tubbo was the first awake. He yawned and opened his eyes, feeling much better than he had the night before. He looked around. Why was he out here and not in his room?

He spotted Wilbur and remembered what had happened. A smile lit up his face. He may have been feverish and all, but he remembered falling asleep to Wilbur's music the night before.

He also remembered going on a bunch of rambles that had made no sense. Fevers do that type of stuff to people, so he got a pass on the crazy-talk.

Tommy stirred, sat up, and stretched. He looked over at Tubbo. "Oh, you're awake! You look better today." Relief was obvious on his face. Tubbo offered a smile.

Soon enough, the others woke up. Both of them commented on Tubbo, saying how glad they were to see him better. It was chill until there was a knock at the door.

Wilbur got up to answer it and Techno barreled into the room. "You didn't tell me we were having a sleepover." He said, a hint of disappointment in his monotone voice.

"You were already asleep. Didn't want to wake you up. But now that we're all here, how about we make some breakfast?" Wilbur said.

"I'll cook." Phil offered, standing up and stretching. He walked into the kitchen and started cooking. The rest of the group explained to Techno what had happened, each of them trying to talk over each other.

Techno had to explain how he'd gotten there- The snow had been mostly cleared, and he'd just gotten a rideshare. His tale was much less dramatic than the other side, but he tried to make it sound at least a little cool.

Soon enough, they all walked into the kitchen, where Phil had made eggs, bacon, pancakes, and hot chocolate for all of them. They chatted and joked.

Tubbo paused for a second and looked at his friends. But they didn't seem like friends, exactly.

They were more like his family.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yeah it's just a one shot. Hope you liked it!
> 
> i just needed a bit of fluff in this lol.
> 
> that's all!! Bye!!
> 
> -Sunny


	10. -Nine- Venomous Voice

Wilbur was tired. He'd been up for too long, pinning photos and notecards to a board. He was pretty sure it could be likened to something a serial killer would do. He stretched back in his chair and looked at the clock. He realized that was the clock that didn't work and checked his watch instead. Eleven at night.

He thought about going and laying down, but something was keeping him up. He thought about just pacing around the apartment, but his guitar caught his eye. He sighed. "I'll do this, I guess."

It was late, everyone else was already asleep. He grabbed his guitar, put it in it's case, and slung it over his arm. He quickly jotted a note and stuck it to the fridge, just in case something happened. He doubted it would.

Wilbur walked down to the lobby and out of the apartment. The night was quieter than usual. He hummed, trying to figure out what songs to play. With it being so late, softer songs usually got more attention.

He walked to the docks and found a nice looking spot. He sat down and began strumming out a soft song he'd wrote a while back. People came and went. The song ended and another one began. About an hour passed- it was a bit funny how many people passed at such an obscene hour.

The night was shaping out to be quite normal. Wilbur didn't trust it. The last time he thought he was going to have a normal night, he met the Clingys.

Another song came and went. He watched the people walk by. Ocasionally, someone would drop some money in his guitar case and keep walking.

He was zoned out when it happened. A woman walked by and smiled at him, but looked away before Wilbur could catch most of her face. She tossed something into his case and he got a glance of it before she walked away.

It was the skull and biohazard symbol, the pink version. Wilbur stood up quickly, shutting his guitar case and picking it up. "Hey!"

She glanced back and Wilbur caught a grin on her face. He took a step towards her and she took off at a dead run.

Wilbur had been in combat before. He knew the smart thing to do would be to get reinforcements, to not follow her. She was trying to get him somewhere where she'd have the advantage.

"Oh, fuck it." He'd been looking for something, anything, about this group for so long. He started after her.

The chase wasn't too long. She led him down an alley and started climbing up a building. She again grinned down at him. He sighed and set down his guitar case before beginning to climb up himself.

Wilbur was surprised to see her still there by the time he had reached the top. He got into a fighting stance and finally got a good look at her. She had blond hair with some purple highlights and was wearing normal, civilian clothes. No other defining traits. He filed that info away, figuring it could be useful for a report later.

"Hello Wilbur." She said. Her voice was tinged with a bit of an accent. German, maybe? "I've been waiting for a chance to meet you!"

"Who are you, exactly?" He said, preparing for a fight. He noticed she had two sickles, one in her hand and the other sheathed. When had she gotten those out?

"Who am I?" She smiled again. "You mean to say you've been looking into us for so long and you don't even know my name? I'm... hmm, what should I be called..." She stopped for a second and tilted her head. "How about you call me Nihachu? Or we could just keep it simple- how about Niki?"

"Niki..." Wilbur felt her name out in his mouth. It was a small bit of info, but it could be so, so important. He took a step towards her. She pulled the other sickle out of it's sheath, the curved purple blade glinting in the moonlight. 

"Now's when we fight, right? I'm kind of new to all this villain stuff... I did just join the Assembly." Wilbur's face gave away his interest and she seemed to file it away in her brain. She took a step towards him.

Then it was a battle.

Niki lunged towards him, her blades slicing through the air towards him. He dodged backwards quickly and strummed a loud note on his guitar. The sound was basically visible as it flew towards her. She jumped over it with the grace of a cat.

"Seems we both need to be quicker." She said as she launched another attack. Wilbur sent a shield of soundwaves up to block her blades, but she was stronger than she looked. He stumbled backwards. He was a bit too close to the edge of the roof now. He tried to push forward, but Niki's attack was relentless. He eventually had to compromise and just try and stay where he was.

It seemed like Niki was just going to hold him there until he couldn't hold up his shields anymore, but she was human too. She slowed, just for a second, and Wilbur managed to land a hit on her side.

She gritted her teeth and gave up a bit of ground. It was clearly more than she planned to let him have in the first place, because she was back on the attack almost immediately. Wilbur huffed, running out of breath.

"Just a bit more fighting..." Niki said, and the previous scene repeated almost exactly. Wilbur was barraged until Niki slowed for a second, and he hit her back. Then she forced him back to where he'd began.

"Talk about a circular fight, eh?" Wilbur said, sweat beading on his forehead. He never liked doing these forcefields for long. They were such a huge drain on his energy.

Niki laughed. They began the cycle again. "It really is just a circle! Not anymore, I think I can do this now." Wilbur paused, confused. Niki stepped back and gave a smile. She pulled a needle filled with a black substance from her bag and set it on the roof.

"Alright, here we go." Niki sighed and closed her eyes. When she opened them, they were glowing a slight pink.

"Pick that up and inject it in your arm- your shoulder. Then... stop attacking me."

"What? No, why would I do... that...." Wilbur realized he wasn't speaking halfway through his sentence. His body moved on its own, much more jerkily than normal. He screamed at himself not to do it. Why was he doing this?

It clicked. Niki had been wearing him down so she could use her power on him. It seemed to be some sort of body control based on spoken commands. Wilbur was just a spectator right now, watching as his body worked against his will. His hands picked up the needle and got it into position, rolling up his sleeve to get a clear shot to his shoulder.

He was glad he could close his eyes as it injected. It burned, like lemon in a wound. He tossed the needle to the ground as soon as the command was over. Niki _tsk_ ed. She walked over and carefully put the needle in a ziploc bag. Wilbur stared at his arm in horror. A web of black had spread over his shoulder.

"Oh, that looks a lot worse than I thought it would." Niki said, an almost caring expression on her face. She walked towards him. He moved to send a blast of sound her way, but her last command rung in his head. He couldn't attack her.

Niki gave a smile and sat down on the edge of the roof, watching the beginnings of sunrise. "I've got a bit until I'm picked up. This was fun! We should do it again another time!"

Wilbur laughed, despite the situation. "You make it sound like we've just been on a date or something." He sat down next to her, unsure of what else to do. "Do you want to explain to me anything about what just happened?"

Niki looked over at him, and furrowed her eyebrows in thought. "I don't know how much I _can_ tell you. Oh! I know something! That stuff in the needle? We call it Mute." She looked at his shoulder. "I really hope it works as intended. It'd be a shame if it killed you."

"Oh, I agree with that."

"Really though, you seem nice! We may have been friends if the circumstances were different."

"Mhm, I can see that."

"Niki." A different voice came from behind them. A familiar, Irish voice. "You ready to go?"

"Oh, hi! Mi- Should I just use your name or keep calling you M?"

M thought for a sec. "Nah, go with my name. I'm getting tired of being called a letter."

Niki smiled and stood up. Wilbur turned around to get a clear view of the person. She had purple hair and a devious grin. "Let me formally introduce myself- Call me Minx."

"Oh, it's you." Wilbur recognized her now that she could see her face. It was the teleporter.

"I'm that iconic, hm? We did have an encounter, right? I can't quite remeber- that was a dusty version of me. One of the King's clones."

"I have to be honest, Minx, I have no idea what that could mean." Wilbur said. Niki stood up and walked towards Minx.

"Then that means we're doing our job fucking well. How was your shot?"

Wilbur just glared at her. Her grin widened. Niki watched them both, putting her sickles in their sheaths. "You two seem to get along well."

Both of them glared at her. She put her hands up in surrender, laughing a little bit. "Oh, we already act like a group of friends, huh? If circumstances were different, I could see us hanging out. We still technically could, but I think Wilbur would put us in cuffs if he ever sees us again."

Wilbur nodded and stood up. "Oh yeah, for sure. Though I don't know if I could, with Niki's commands and all."

Niki flashed him a bright smile. She checked her watch. "Oh! Minx, time to go!" She grabbed Minx's hand.

"Wait!" Wilbur reached out towards them. They would be such valuable info sources, if he could just get them on his side-

"Sorry, Mr. Soot. We've gotta go." Minx said. "You can take these though." She dropped two calling cards to the floor. A pink one and a purple one.

"Bye, Wilbur!" Niki waved as her form began to waver. "We'll meet again soon! Trust me on that!" And with that final message from Niki, he was alone on the roof. 

Wilbur looked around. The sun was beginning to rise. He walked over and picked up the calling cards, stuffing them in his pocket.

Wilbur climbed down the fire escape, wincing as he was forced to put his weight on his injured shoulder. He got to the last landing and hopped off, hitting the pavement in the alley with a soft thud and a grunt of pain.

The city was waking up, and Wilbur really didn't want it to be. He tugged his sleeve down as far as it could go, trying to hide the spiderweb of black covering most of his shoulder. People would ask about it if they saw it. He didn't want to get asked about it.

He found his guitar case and put his instrument inside, carrying it with his good arm. He didn't totally understand why the arm that had gotten the injection hurt this much. As he stepped onto the sidewalk, his adrenaline faded.

His body began to ache, his energy having been used up by shielding himself. He pushed himself to make the ten-minute walk home into five minutes. His arm hurt like all hell. He grimaced as he speed-walked through the people who'd begun to leave for work or school.

Not soon enough, in his opinion, he was at his apartment building. He walked in and got in the elevator. He basically ran down the hall to his door. He tried to unlock the door, but he was shaking. When had he started shaking?

Phil opened the door with a yawn. "Wil? Why are you- Holy shit, mate, you're white as a fucking sheet. What happened?"

"Nothing." Wilbur blurted out. "I'm fine."

Phil paused. "If you say so." He stepped back to let Wilbur in. Wilbur went back to his room and set his guitar down before going to the bathroom. He pulled his sleeve up and looked at the area. Was it bigger than before?

**//tw panic attack**

He glanced up at his face. Phil hadn't been wrong. He was much paler than usual, that was for sure. He blinked and there was a spiderweb of black on his face. His breath hitched. Another blink and it was gone.

Wilbur's breathing was fast, his vision a bit too bright. His hands were shaking. The silence of the house was too loud, buzzing into his ears. His breath was coming fast. His heart beat in time with his breath. Too fast, it was all too fast! He splashed some water on his face and stepped back, leaning against the bathroom door. He slid down it, closing his eyes and trying to control his breathing.

1-2-3-4-5 inhale, 1-2-3-4-5 exhale. Repeat.

Wilbur kept breathing, trying to focus on the things he could feel. The floor, the door, the air. He sat like that for a few minutes, trying to get a hold on himself. It took a while, but soon the buzzing in his head died down and he just sat there. He eventually opened his eyes, only to find his vision blurred by tears. When had he started crying?

He stood up again, his legs just a bit shaky, and splashed some water on his face. He quickly went into the kitchen, relieved to see nobody else there, and got a glass of water. He retreated to his room to finish calming down.

And go to bed. He should do that before he fell asleep on his feet.

**//tw over**

\----------

"Mission completed!" Niki's voice rang through the room. The King was the only one there other than her and Minx.

"Who'd you end up targeting?" The King asked. She shrugged.

"Wilbur. I was right, he was easiest to get alone. I feel a bit bad though. He seemed so nice..."

"Well, yeah he's gonna be fucking nice! He's a hero, for God's sake!" Minx said. Her voice was harsh, but she was smiling.

"Yeah, but I thought he'd be meaner to us! We are villains, after all."

"...Yeah. Good job, Minx, Niki." The King said, a smile plastering itself to his face. The girls seemed happy with his answer and walked deeper into the building. The King's smile evaporated as his phone buzzed. Another message. He sighed, and this time, he opened it.

:)  
 _ **Hey, we need to talk.**_

:)  
 _ **Whens the best time and place?**_

There were a few messages that were just trying to get his attention, mostly _**Hi?**_ s and _**Hello?**_ s

:)  
 _ **seriously man, its important.**_

The King sighed before responding.

You  
 ** _Tonight, midnight, meet me at the corner of the docks near the clocktower.  
_**

You  
 ** _this better be as important as you make it out to be.  
_**

:)  
 ** _It is. See you there._**

The King put down his phone and adjusted his sunglasses, sighing once again.

Looks like he had an appointment. 


	11. -Ten- A King and a Jester

Dream put down his phone on the table next to his bed. Just glad for the response. Er- no, he went by The King now- had a history of not responding. Dream sighed and put his phone down after a click glance at the time. Six in the morning. He had about two hours until the others would wake up. 

He stared at the ceiling for a while, before the need to do something productive took over. He groaned and rolled out of bed, almost knocking his mask off of his nightstand.

Dream walked over to his computer and opened a few tabs, trying to find something to kill time. He could game, he could write something...

Dream found himself clicking open a coding software. He'd already finished with the stuff for the Hub, so he started just... doing. It felt good to let his mind go on autopilot-ish as his hands clicked out code.

An hour and thirty minutes later, he was looking at the beginnings of a small game. Dream looked over his work and stood up. He could finish this next time he couldn't sleep. Now, he would cook.

He went to the kitchen and began pulling ingredients out of drawers. He spent the remaining thirty minutes of the time he had left before the others woke up cooking them all a breakfast spread.

Then they woke up and ate and destroyed the silence the house had been in all night. It's not to say it was a bad thing. Dream needed something to take his mind off of what he was planning to do tonight.

"So, what's today's agenda?" Dream asked, hoping someone else could take the weight of his free time off of his shoulders. He never thought having so much free time could be such a burden, but here he was.

"I was thinking about going in today, just doing some records cleanup," George said.

"Just gonna go work desk today." Sap said. Dream nodded.

"I don't know what my official job title is anymore. Guess I'm the IT guy?"

George laughed. "You should probably get all of that figured out. Or you could just keep being the IT guy and chef. You do a better job of that second one that I do."

The rest of the group cracked up at this. The banter helped the time fly. Next thing Dream knew he was at the Hub, starting to cook lunch. Today was just some normal stuff- Hamburgers, hotdogs. He began to cook and just as soon as he started, he was done. Time flies when you are having fun and also waiting to have what will probably be the tensest conversation of your life.

He set the food out on the counter and watched as people began to file in. Tommy, Tubbo, Wilbur, Finn, and Karl. Dream always realized how understaffed this place was at lunch. Phil, Fundy, George, and Sap. Then there was The Blade. He always came last and it was still tense.

Dream was surprised Techno hadn't noticed him, honestly. With such a... colorful history, he'd expected to be recognized by the hero instantly.

Speaking of Dream's colorful history, he had quite a bit of it. He had not been the most perfect person before. That's why he'd left.

\------------

Dream had never been able to be the "good kid." He killed his best friend the day he got his powers, so he'd never been popular with his peers or authority, even after he got his first mask. Dream quickly ended up with the "bad kids". 

They were mostly just punks, people who disliked heroes for one reason or another. Quite a few had powers like his. Eventually, they'd sprinkled a bit of crime into the daily routine. That's when he'd met The King.

Dream contemplated his past as the workday flew by. He spent most of it bugging George. It was six in the afternoon and he had six hours to kill. 

Dream walked out of work and started on his way home. He stopped by a takeout place and grabbed dinner. Usually, he'd cook, but he didn't want to now. He figured he could sink five hours into coding the game and spend the other hour getting to the meeting location and mentally prepping.

That's exactly what he did. While he was pounding away at the code for the game, he continued thinking about his past. Specifically, the King.

\----------

They'd met when Dream entered college. Dream had just been wandering around when he literally ran into him. They'd both fell and Dream's mask was knocked off of his face. He scrambled to find it, covering his eyes at the same time.

The King had handed him his mask and Dream put it on before looking up at him. The King (It was hard to think of him like that, he'd went by something else a while back) had dropped his sunglasses, and they'd snapped as they hit the ground.

"Oh man, sorry!" Dream had said, picking them up. He met the King's eyes and quickly looked away, not even registering their color. "Are they safe to look at?"

There was a pause before the King chuckled. "Never been asked that before. Yeah, they're fine." Dream breathed a sigh of relief.

"Good, good. Mine aren't." He looked up at the King's eyes. "Oh man, those are weird."

"Oh, now you notice. Yeah, that's usually the first thing people tell me."

The two had a few classes in common and quickly became friends. It wasn't the King's fault that Dream brought him into the crime-ridden part of the city. It was much more intense than when Dream first joined. So many heroes had left the force, a good amount of minor villains were left to run amok, and they took advantage of it.

Dream and the King convinced each other to start doing some small things. They'd both steered away from serious crime for quite a bit. Shoplifting, sure, that was fine. Then they got with some of the... rougher crowds in the city. 

Dream started doing hits- it was really hard to trace it back to him most of the time. The King started using his powers on money. He could duplicate it for a short amount of time. Dream rose up the ranks of the underworld. He ended up as what people would consider the leader of the dark side of Illosia. He had a bit of influence with a lot of important people on their side. The two were living well until a simple heist on a shop went wrong.

\---------

Dream checked the clock. 11:00. He nodded at the clock, and stood up, leaving the almost finished game to sit idle on his desktop until he returned. Dream looked over his stuff. He suddenly remembered that this wouldn't just be a meeting between friends. He got on his knees and pulled a sword from under his bed.

"Haven't used this thing in a while." He said, looking over the blade. He sheathed it and strapped it to his back, under his hoodie. He stepped out of his room and walked out of the house as quickly and quietly as he could.

Not quiet or quick enough though.

Dream's walk was alright. It was a bit too cold for his liking. He thought back again, thinking of the final part of the story of his past. He gave up on using the King's new name.

He wasn't the true king, anyways.

\----------

The heist had gone wrong. All he and Eret had just wanted some snacks. In all of their wisdom, they decided to steal them. Dream had a hit on the owner, anyways. Two birds, one stone.

Eret had held the man at crossbow-point, while Dream pilfered his stock. When they had finished getting what they wanted, Dream walked over and pulled his mask down just a bit. "Look at his eyes."

Thirty seconds passed, and the man was slumped over, dead. The hit was complete.

But then there was the hitch. The alarm had been triggered when the entered. And through the doors walked The Blade himself.

Dream and Eret looked at each other, equal amounts terrified and hyped. There was a fight, but it's so blurred by adrenaline and time that brief flashes are all that stand out.

Techno with three crossbow bolts in his shoulder, two of them melting into dust.

Dream had felt the pain of Techno's blade through his mask- there was still a scar crossing his face. He had so many scars from that night- covering his arms, his side, even some on his legs.

The last memory was more vivid. Dream had screamed, a wordless noise of pain and adrenaline. And he ripped off his mask, staring into Techno's eyes. Techno seemed unworried at first, but his eyes widened as he got close to the thirty-second mark.

At the literal last second, Dream had tore his eyes away. Techno held a hand to his ear. It came back bloody. Then he fell to his knees and passed out.

Dream and Eret ran, straight to their hideout in an abandoned building. They had talked in quiet, panicked tones, sure that Techno was coming for them any second. That was when Dream decided to go back to his home on the mainland.

That was the last time he talked to Eret. Until tonight, at least.

\----------

He was there. "Eret?" He said, looking around. The other was nowhere to be seen.

"Hello, Dream." Dream jumped at the voice of his former friend, turning around. There was Eret, in the flesh. He looked almost the same- A haircut and a crown were the most notable. "You should know by now- It's the King now."

"Oh, I know. I'm just not gonna do that. Anyways, I've got some questions for you."

"And why should I answer them?" Eret said. Dream sighed.

"I was hoping it wouldn't be like this. I was hoping you'd just tell me. I just need to know what the blood is for."

"You know about that? How deeply are your claws in this city, I thought you'd left the kingdom to be run by me."

"Just got back, and I have to say, I hate what you've done with the place. Got stabbed ten minutes after re-entry."

Eret pulled his glasses down slightly, flashing his white eyes. It was a trick that used to scare Dream, but not anymore. "That... That may overlap with me. Apologies."

"You owe me one answer. What are you getting blood for?"

"...Research purposes."

"Dammit, Eret-"

"King."

"-I came here hoping this meeting wouldn't be fucking useless." Dream put his hand to his mask, an empty threat, and a reminder of his power. Eret looked away.

"I can't tell you. You've been away for so long, I found a new group and a new project. It's based on you though."

"That's all I'm gonna get, isn't it?"

"...Unfortunately, yes. I don't know what you'll do with the info. I cannot have you leaking it."

Dream sighed. "Fine." He walked past Eret, back the way he came. "Goodbye, Eret."

"...It's not the final goodbye." Eret said, softly. Dream whipped around.

"What?" He asked, but Eret was already gone. He turned back around and took a step towards home. He got partway there and turned a corner next to an alleyway. Prime mugging spot, he was prepared for someone to grab him. He had a plan, a sword, and a superpower that was hard to beat. He honestly thought it would be funny to see what they did.

He turned the corner and yep- he was pulled to the alley. As expected. He had to look down a bit to see his assailant.

"Oh. My. God." It was George. George had him pushed against a wall, a pocket knife in his hand. It was all Dream could do not to laugh. This was a change in tone for the night. "Since when do you mug people?"

"Dream! I want to know what you're doing, meeting up with people in the middle of the night!"

"Oh, Eret?" Dream said, trying to sound nonchalant. The reality of this hit him- George worked at the Hub- one word could send Dream to prison. "He's just a friend."

"Uh-huh. And I can fly. Truth, now."

Dream weighed his options- there were three. He could kill George, but that was unadvised. He could lie- He was pretty sure George could tell when he lied though, also unadvised.

That left him with one option- Tell the truth and hope.

"Alright, you've caught me. George, can I trust you not to tell anyone? Like, not even Sap."

George thought for a second before nodding. "Go on."

And so he did. He told George the full story. George took it better than he thought- he said it could be a good link for the investigation. Dream could be an anonymous source.

"Ah, but that's not all of my story. We've got some next steps. I'm going to find out what's going on- Something's not right. You in to help, George?"

"....Oh, hell yes."

\----------

Bad and Skeppy were about to go out on a patrol. It would be their first one as vigilantes. It would be Bad's first time breaking the law. 

There was a hooded figure with a golden medallion who was on his patrol, but for the other side. It was his first one, too, but he was looking for something much, much different.

How wrong could things go? How badly could these groups clash?

It's curious, really.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> honestly my least favorite chapter in this story ;-;
> 
> I'm glad yall are enjoying this so far tho!!! hope you like this chapter!  
> see ya tomorrow with chapter eleven !!!


	12. -Eleven- Diamonds, Gold, and Green

Skeppy was excited about this patrol. He was kinda amazed he'd gotten this far- He'd thought Bad would shoot the idea down way back when he'd brought it up, but here he was. He pulled his hood up and put on his facemask. It felt so odd to be wearing something so akin to a superhero's outfit.

He looked up at Bad, who was tugging up his hoodie. The wrong one had ended up coming in- this one had little cloth devil horns attached. Skeppy had laughed at that- Ironic someone nicknamed BadBoyHalo would get devil horns. Bad quickly got attached though, and when Skeppy had offered to cut them off, Bad had gasped, offended, and ran away from Skeppy.

Bad put his mask on and gave Skeppy a smile, although it was hard to tell. He realized Skeppy couldn't see his face and gave a thumbs up instead. The pair were at the beginning of their planned route. They figured it would be best not to be seen leaving their apartment in such suspicious clothing, so they'd brought their stuff in duffel bags.

Bad strapped his gun holster onto his hip. He pulled his hoodie over it, properly concealing the gun. "Can you see the weapons?" he asked Skeppy.

"Uhh," Skeppy looked over Bad carefully. "No, you're good. Damn-"

"Language!"

"Darn, that's cool. You had a large number of knives and I thought at least one would poke out, but they're all hidden."

"That's the goal," Bad said with a smile. "Watch this." Bad held his hand out. He flicked his wrist and a knife seemingly appeared in his hand. Skeppy's eyes widened.

"WHAT. How does that even work?" He looked at Bad's hand and wrist, trying to puzzle out where the knife came from. Bad flicked his wrist again and the knife was gone. Again, Skeppy looked over Bad's hand, trying to see how the trick was done. 

Bad laughed, pulling his hand down."Skeppy, we should get going." Bad said. "This is going to be a long walk."

It was, in fact, a long walk. Bad and Skeppy walked from one side of the city to the other. It seemed quiet, but from their experience, it always was quiet before something happened.

They expected something to happen much sooner than it did. It was almost funny- they both jumped at every shadow. They got quite a few odd looks. Dressed like they were, people probably thought Skeppy and Bad were either new minor villains or new heroes.

No one talked to them. They weren't really surprised- who would talk to a couple of guys that looked like they would rob them? They ended up taking their masks off so people wouldn't look at them like they were going to murder them

The pair walked through the city, joking like they were just walking. They tried to come up with some names for their group. Skeppy liked the idea of naming them the Ducklings. Bad liked the Muffin Men. They fake-squabbled over the name.

They were about three-quarters done with the patrol when it finally happened. They walked by an alley where two people- hooded- were drawing blood from an unconscious man. 

"Hurry it up, Punz. This alley isn't exactly the most hidden place," said one of the two. This one was wearing a beaver hoodie. He was standing up and looking around. He didn't seem to have noticed them.

"Shut up, Geo- Spifey, shit, forgot about codenames- I'm trying to do this carefully. King says this stuff's valuable." The one drawing the blood said. It was harder to see him, but he seemed focused. He wore a white hoodie and a golden medallion

Skeppy and Bad looked at each other. Bad looked back at the alley and whispered, "Language to that guy. Anyways, we need to do this sneakily-"

"HEY!" Skeppy said, instantly destroying any pretense of stealth. Bad sighed. "STOP RIGHT THERE!"

"Oh. Punz, we've been caught."

"Well, get on fixing that. Steal their braincells or whatever it is you do." The one drawing the blood- Punz- didn't even look up.

Spifey smiled and held out his hands. His form appeared to glitch as smoke came pouring from his palms. It filled the alley and surrounded Bad and Skeppy until they couldn't see anything. "Skeppy?" Bad called out. He tried to hold his breath, but after a while, he couldn't. He took a breath in and coughed. He must have closed his eyes for just a second.

When he opened them, he wasn't next to Skeppy in an alley. He was in an area that looked like a jungle, with tangles of foliage around. "...Skeppy?" He stepped forward.

He was alone.

\----------

Punz had thought this would be a nice, quiet night where he could relax and play a game. He was coming back from getting food when he got a message from The King- Eret, as he was saved in Punz's contacts.

Punz sighed as his phone buzzed and picked it up. A mission. Great. With... Geo? That was odd. He'd never really talked to Geo before, so it was strange that they were paired together for a mission. Punz sent a message back, confirming that he could do the mission. Eret fired back with the rest of the info.

They were doing a simple blood task. The target was a man named Anthony Denton. He could copy powers if he knew who was using them. His blood was important- Eret said it could advance their research by leaps and bounds.

Punz was glad they'd gotten as far as they had. He'd felt bad at first when he and the others were just scrambling to get samples from anyone they could. He really didn't like it when Eret had made copies of them to speed up their progress- something about it felt off to him.

Punz had snapped out of his train of thought and gotten out of his car, walking back into his apartment. He had a few hours before he had to go out, so he ate his food and took a quick nap, waking up an hour before it was time to prep.

He slid his hoodie on and put the medallion on top of it, touching the thing that gave him his powers. It was so stupid that his power was tied to such a simple item. If it broke or if he lost it, he would just lose his power. 

Then again, it was nice to be able to just forget he had a power. That used to be especially helpful when he'd lose control. Suddenly being crushed or just floating off was not particularly enjoyable.

He'd grabbed his axe and sharpened it, appreciating the way it was made. Big Q had made it using his power, and it was the best weapon Punz ever owned. It could fold in on itself, making it easy to hide and transport. He shouldn't need it for this mission- he just needed the medallion.

He walked to the meeting spot- the city's clocktower. He spotted Geo quickly, and they started walking and talking, trying to figure out how they were going to do this. Punz had more combative experience, so he figured it would be best if he did the initial attack and then Geo just backed him up.

That's just what they did. They found the spot- Anthony was a man of schedule and he walked the same route every day. That's why it was so simple for Punz and Geo to ambush him. They knocked him out and Punz started drawing his blood.

Then the rest of the story happened. He watched as those two inhaled the smoke Geo made, and Geo looked back at him. "Braincells stolen," Geo said with a smile.

The two heroes stood motionless, their eyes glazed over. Punz shivered. He didn't like the idea that Geo could do that to him at any time. "That's an interesting power."

Geo smiled again. "Yep. I can also do illusionary terrain, but that's a bit harder. This-" He gestured at the heroes, "Is easy and it buys us a total of... five minutes, max. Hurry it up."

"I literally cannot," said Punz, watching the blood flow into the container. "This is going to be a rough time crunch."

Geo grimaced and turned back to the two heroes, who were stuck in their own minds- basically dreaming with their eyes open. "And it was supposed to be a simple mission, huh."

\--------

Skeppy whipped his head around, searching for Bad, the villains, or just anyone else.

He was alone in a dark jungle. How had he gotten there? The memories were hazy. He put a hand to his forehead, sensing the beginnings of a headache.

Something seemed off about this place, but he couldn't put his finger on it. He shrugged it off and started walking, pushing through the tangled vines. 

Thorns pricked at him, but he really didn't notice, the pain barely there. He walked forward a bit, pushed through a tangle of vines, and-

Skeppy was back where he started. He sighed and looked down at his hands. Something about them was off. He blinked. Something was wrong with this place, but he couldn't tell what. "Dammit," he said, looking around.

For some reason, he was shocked when there was silence after his cuss. He looked around a bit more. How had he gotten here? What had happened?

Skeppy's memories had vanished, leaving him alone in the dark jungle. He put a hand to his forehead, a headache coming on as he tried to drag his memories back. He frowned.

He sighed and sat down in the small clearing where he started. His location seemed less important as he fought to pull his memories back from wherever they'd gone. Something was urgent. He needed to have those memories.

Skeppy noticed the amnesia getting worse. His birthday? Gone. His age? Gone. He started repeating his name under his breath, desperately trying to cling to that one piece of himself he had. Even that was fading, becoming a meaningless word.

He closed his eyes and focused. He knew something was wrong here and it felt important to pick out what it was. 

The lack of pain from the thorns. The way his hands were off earlier. He opened his eyes and tried something- he pushed his palms together.

They ended up going through each other. Something clicked. This wasn't real. He was dreaming. Things started to flood back to him. He laughed, delighted.

He was Skeppy, and he was going to tear whatever realm this was apart.

He knew this was like a dream now, so he remembered one of the core tenants of dreams- If you know it's a dream, you can do anything. He smiled, cracked his knuckles, and planted his hands firmly on the ground. Crystals began to grow from his hands, covering the ground around him.

He closed his eyes again, and when he opened them, the world around him was crystalline. He grinned. This was a dream, he was absolutely sure. There was no way he could do this in real life.

He walked around, admiring his work. The crystal jungle was a lot less frightening than what it had been formerly. He figured it was time to leave this thing now. He walked up to a crystal leaf and flicked it.

All of the jungle shattered at once. Skeppy, with nowhere else to go, started falling into a dark void that had formed beneath him. 

\----------

He closed his eyes and only opened them when he felt his feet on solid ground. He looked around. He was back in the alley. The villains weren't looking at them, so they had a chance to attack. Skeppy stepped towards Bad and pinched him. Bad startled awake, looking around furiously before he remembered what was happening.

Skeppy made a few hand gestures at Bad to explain what they should do. Bad looked at him like he was a maniac. Skeppy sighed silently and started his plan.

He formed a knifelike piece of crystal and tossed it at the one drawing the blood. It hit his shoulder and he cussed loudly, earning him a "Language!" from Bad.

"Ge- Spifey, I thought we had five minutes!!" Punz put his hand on his wound, wincing. He kept his eyes trained on the vigilantes. Punz seemed to be weighing his options.

"I thought we would," said Spifey, "But they clearly got out of it quicker than I thought." He looked around. It hit Spifey that he would be virtually useless, aside from making some illusionary cover for him and Punz. 

Punz seemed to notice this, too. He looked at the bag of blood. It was almost full. "It's better if we escape alive, with this. Let's get out of here."

"Don't move!" Skeppy threw another shard, but Punz saw it coming and made it fall due to increased gravity.

"Geo- I mean Spifey- get this reverse IV thingy out and take the container. I'll hold these two off." Punz stood up, cracking his knuckles. He whipped his axe out and un-collapsed it.

Spifey gave a nod and got to dismantling the small machine that was drawing the blood. Punz faced directly towards the heroes.

"Alright, then, let's fight." Skeppy turned his arms into crystalline blades with a grin. Punz smiled back.

And they clashed. Skeppy's arms shook as Punz brought down his axe. They traded blows for a bit. Punz was just a bit stronger than Skeppy and kept breaking his blocks. Skeppy was more acrobatic, though. He found it easy to dodge Punz's heavy axe swings. He tried to get in a few hits, leaving Punz with a few minor cuts on his arms and chest, the areas left open.

Bad watched the intricate dance of combat Skeppy was partaking in, searching for an opening. There wasn't one, though. The fighting pair were too close. Any bullets shot or knives thrown had a risk to hit Skeppy, too.

So Bad turned his attention towards Spifey. The man in the beaver hoodie locked eyes with him as he put the blood bag in his satchel and dropped a calling card out. Then he turned to run. 

Bad stuck his hand out and channeled energy into the clumps of plants dotting the cracked pavement. They grew quickly, twisting around the beaver's ankles and stopping him in his tracks. 

Spifey looked around wildly, having no idea how to counter this attack. More plants grew, holding him down. Skeppy paused to look over, cheering at the sight of his friend's attack.

"Nice job, Ba-" Skeppy only paused for a moment, but it was enough of an opening. Punz grazed Skeppy's leg with his ax. Skeppy stumbled backward and fell. Punz loomed over him, a frown on his face.

"Sorry about this. If you just stayed away, this would have been a simple mission." He lifted his axe and closed his eyes, preparing to land a blow. A blow that would be the last one Skeppy could take.

The ax swung downwards.

Skeppy screwed his eyes shut, preparing, hoping the afterlife was kind.

_BANG._

A gunshot rang out through the alley. Skeppy was confused for a second- He thought an ax was going to be the murder weapon. Also, it hurt a lot less than it should have. He opened his eyes and realized what had happened.

Bad was holding the smoking gun. Punz held his shoulder, letting out a stream of curses. "Language," Bad said, oddly calm.

"Spifey! Give us some cover!" Punz said. He closed his eyes and the two began to float. Skeppy figured it was Punz's power. Spifey used a small knife to chop the plants holding his ankles away. They went above the roof and then they were gone, presumably hidden by whatever cover Spifey could make. 

Another calling card fell from the sky- this one was Punz's. It landed on the ground in front of Bad, who glanced at it before stepping directly onto it.

Bad holstered his gun and walked over to Skeppy. That walk turned into a run and soon Skeppy saw that Bad was tearing up just a bit.

"Skeppy! Are you ok? I'm sorry about the gunshot, I know I wasn't supposed to use the gun, but he was about to kill you and I couldn't just let it happen! Skeppy, what should we do? I'm sorry again and-"

"Bad, you're fine," Skeppy said, cutting the other man's profuse apology off. "We need to get out of here. The heroes will be coming because of that gunshot."

"Oh, you're right. Here, let me fix up your leg a bit." Bad held his hand over Skeppy's leg and the wound closed a bit, making it much more manageable. Skeppy stood up carefully. The pair began to walk home.

"I thought this would just be a simple mission," Bad said, laughter in his voice. "But you nearly died and I nearly killed a man."

\----------

"This was just supposed to be a simple mission!" Eret said. "At least you got the target's blood, I suppose."

The pair were already drifting away, going to take care of their wounds or take the blood to the research room.

Eret sighed. This job stressed him out more than any other thing he'd ever done. But he had to do it. For Dream, for Fundy. For most of humanity, starting with the people of Illosia.

It was not just a job anymore. It was a duty. He had to finish what he started.

No matter how much he wished he hadn't.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :) hiya!!  
> this is the longest ch in the work so far and it's wild,,, cant believe i wrote so much,,,  
> this is the halfway point for what else i have written!   
> hope you enjoyed, as always!  
> see you next time :D
> 
> -sunny


	13. -Twelve- Unmasked

Techno was suspicious but was really good at not showing it.

Something about Dream had rubbed him the wrong way from the beginning. The way Dream avoided Techno. The way he seemed nervous around him.

It didn't click with him until later, by complete accident.

He had been sifting through the kitchens, looking for a snack, when Dream had walked in. He didn't notice Techno walk into the room. Techno had watched with mild curiosity. Dream let out a sigh and started scrolling through his phone. He clearly wanted a break from the people in the Hub.

Techno found himself in a dilemma- He wanted to leave and not intrude on Dream, but Dream was right in front of the door. It would be extremely awkward just to shuffle by him, so Techno just stayed in the pantry.

Techno watched as Dream looked around, as if to make sure no one else was there. He must have not been looking too closely, because he didn't seem to see Techno.

Techno knew he probably shouldn't watch, but morbid curiosity overtook him as Dream put a hand to his mask and removed it.

That's when it clicked. Techno saw Dream's eyes for a second and felt a gnawing pain in his head. He glanced away quickly. This Dream was the same Dream who had landed him in the hospital for two months last time they fought. This was the criminal mastermind Dream, in the Hub, with access to all of the important classified info.

Techno stared in the ground, dread flooding his mind. Had Dream been the one to set all of this up? All of these attacks, were they his doing?

Techno quickly made up his mind- He had to get to the bottom of this particular mystery. He came up with a plan to figure out Dream's motives without letting on his own.

Techno texted Dream and asked if he could meet up for dinner. They would have one of those tense dinners that are always in novels, goddammint. Techno had always wanted to have one of those.

Oh, and if they fought after, that would be fine. Techno mainly wanted to experience the tense dinner situation.

Dream texted back with a "Sure :)," and Techno nearly knocked over his chair because he jumped up in excitement. Wilbur shot him an odd look, but Techno only sat back down and gave Wilbur a smirk.

Wilbur laughed and turned away. Techno made a mental note to spend some quality time with him. Like, Mario Kart or something. Wilbur had been acting different lately, but a game of Mario Kart usually brought his spirits back up. Would a full group game be better, he wondered. He could imagine Tommy and Wilbur going head to head pretty fiercely, but how would Tubbo play?

Techno looked back down at his phone and remembered his original train of thought. Dream and dinner and tense conversations. Techno decided to go ahead and go home, he really wasn't needed at the Hub and if he was, Finn would just call him. He had a small garden on the roof of his apartment, mostly to grow potatoes in.

He needed to water his potatoes today, if he remembered right. He'd have to check his planner. Techno liked to water his potatoes the day before one of the other neighbors, Squid, did. Techno was locked in a vicious war to plant the best potatoes on the rooftop. He was attempting to sabotage Squid by watering both of their potatoes so Squid would (hopefully) overwater his.

Techno was leaving the building by the time he looked back down at his phone and remembered the more pressing matter. He then set an alarm on his phone, because he was clearly not in the right mindset to remember that he had these plans. Then he continued home, planning to play a game and research potato growing methods until he had to go to dinner.

\----------

Wilbur sighed as he watched Techno from the window. He looked around, trying to ensure that he was alone. It was hard to tell in the Hub- There were so many people there day-to-day and there were so many blindspots in each room. After looking around the room thoroughly, he confirmed he was alone.

He pulled up the sleeve of his shirt and looked at the black lines on his arm. It had gotten much bigger, covering part of his forearm and all of his bicep. It had even gone up his shoulder and the beginnings of black lines could be seen on his neck.

He shivered as he ran his fingers along the lines, tracing them onto his skin like he was trying to memorize them. There hadn't been any real symptoms of the liquid he had been forced to inject about three days ago, aside from _that_. He'd tried to blame any minor thing on it at first. His only real comfort was that Niki had said the Assembly didn't want to kill him with this.

He didn't like to think about the symptom he thought he'd connected to this. His power was acting strange. He usually had a good amount of control, having trained since he first manifested his power, but lately...

The air around him buzzed, as if to prove his point. He had to close his eyes and focus to get everything to stop. He hadn't needed to do that in forever- Since he was 17, if he remembered right. He also noticed that even simple tasks with his power seemed to take more energy.

If this was what he was thinking- If the Assembly had made him the prototype for something they were planning to do to almost everyone...

The fate of Illosia, the city of superheroes, wasn't looking very good.

\----------

Philza was worried about both of his teammates. He was the best at picking up their signals and they were waving red flags left and right.

Techno was plotting something, that was obvious. The Blade never left work early unless he was going to do something sneaky. Phil couldn't quite put his finger on the severity of the thing Techno was planning. It could be just a new way to ruin Squid's potato farming experience _or_ it could be murder.

It was hard to tell with Techno.

Wilbur was easier to read. He had something on his mind that he was anxious about. Usually he'd just tell them about whatever was annoying him. But this was something he didn't want them to know about or worry about- that's why he was so withdrawn.

Him withdrawing and cutting conversations short only served to make Phil worry more. He figured he'd bring it up with Wil soon. Sometimes he felt more like the group parent or therapist than a friend, but that's just how their friend dynamic played out sometimes.

He hoped Wil was alright. He also hoped, to a lesser degree, that Techno wasn't planning a murder.

\----------

Techno emerged from his room just before dinnertime. He dressed up a bit more nicely than he usually did. Phil looked at him as he walked towards the door.

"Date night?" Phil said with a smile. 

Techno laughed. "As if. It's a buisiness meeting."

Phil nodded, and gestured towards the door. "Go on then, mate. Have fun with whatever."

Techno nodded and gave a wave to the Clingys and Wilbur, who were watching a show in the living area. Tommy gave him a shit-eating grin and wave. "Have fun with the Woman, Techno." Techno just frowned at Tommy and gave him a thumbs down. Techno laughed as Tommy's face fell instantly.

"Later, nerds!" He called out as he left. A chorus of _Bye Techno_ s followed were abruptly cut off as he shut the door. He pulled his crown out of the pocket of his cloak. Phil would have made him the laughing stock of the house if Techno had gone out of the house with his full hero costume. He could get by with the cloak and the fancy princely clothes, but the crown would have been too much in the eyes of Phil.

Techno wanted to wear his crown, goddammit. He put it on his hair and started to walk out of the building. He'd ordered a ride share a just a bit ago, and it was on it's way now. He walked down to the lobby. By the time he exited the building, his ride was there. He got into the car.

Just a bit later, he was at the restaurant. Dream wasn't there yet, so he grabbed a table for the two of them and ordered a soda. He spent the time getting into a more serious mindset. Soon enough, Dream walked up to the table. He sat down.

"Hey Techno, how have you-"

"Dream." Techno let the monotone of his voice amplify his attempt at intimidation. it seemed to work- Dream stopped and looked up at Techno silently.

"Did I do something wrong?" Dream tried to cover for himself. "I-"

"Dream." Techno looked at Dream's mask, right where his eyes should have been. Dream quickly looked away. "I know."

"I-" Dream began, but the waiter came and cut off their conversation before he could finish. A momentary air of politeness choked the scene.

They gave their orders- Dream had clearly looked up the menu or had been there before, as he already knew his order. As soon as the waiter walked away, the walls of gentle politeness dropped. Dream put his hand to his mask- an empty threat, he couldn't kill Techno here.

"I just came back to start a new life. I don't want to fight you- we saw how the last fight went." Dream spoke quietly, his usually happy voice blunted.

"I would also rather not fight," Techno said, steepling his fingers. "I just want to know what you're doing."

"...It's rather complicated. I can tell you though."

"Spill it."

And so Dream did. He started at the very beginning, going through what he'd told George and what had happened at the meeting. Techno listened carefully, eating his meal in silence.

Soon enough, Dream finished his tale and Techno gave a careful nod. "That's the present then?" Techno asked, fixing Dream with a curious look.

Dream nodded. "That was three-ish days ago." 

"Dang," said Techno, "That's... quite a bit to process." 

Dream gave a small laugh. "Tell me about it- I lived through it." With that joke, most of the tension in the air dissipated. "In terms of future plans, I thought about doing the vigilante route, but it just didn't sit right with me. And with George spying me, he could just spill all of that. It's kind of good that you figured out who I was," Dream had removed his hand from his mask, proving his threat was just a bluff. "I was planning on applying to be a hero here soon- you'd need to find out then. Although this was much more tense than that would have been."

"That was the goal," Techno murmured before faking a cough and agreeing. Dream smiled.

"So I'm presuming my hero application is accepted, as well as George's?" Dream said. Techno gave a nod. "Nice. George was excited about this- he thought archery and his power would pair well together. He already knows how to shoot."

"Oh nice. We really need some more heroes. For the so called 'city of heroes' we sure are understaffed."

Dream laughed and Techno smiled. The pair were getting along better than either of them thought they would. The rest of the night was filled with jokes and gossip about coworkers.

They finished dinner and went their separate ways. It was dark, but Techno had decided to walk home. He could finish processing the info he'd gathered and just enjoy the fresh air.

Techno took a breath of the cool air as he walked. A sense of calm fell over the city- this, of course, put Techno a bit on edge. No calm ever seemed to stay for long in Illosia. 

But as he walked home, the calm stayed. This felt a bit more permanent, yet fragile as well. It took a bit for Techno to place the type of calm that was flooding the city, but he recognized. The island city had felt this type of calm many times before, especially during hurricane season, when they were just another island that got trampled by nature.

This calm was the type of calm that hits right before a storm. 

Something told Technoblade that this storm was going to be a big one.

\----------

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ᓭ ꖎ⍑⎓↸ᒷ ⍑ℸ ̣ ᒲ⚍⊣ᒷᓭᒷ𝙹∴ !¡∴ᓵ ̇/ ⚍⍑ᔑ⍊ ᔑリ ̇/⎓ ꖌℸ ̣ ∴ ⍊∴ꖌꖌ. ⨅ ̇/⎓⎓ᑑꖌ !¡∴ᓵ ̇/ ℸ ̣ ̇/ ℸ ̣ ⎓↸⚍ ̇/∷ ꖌᔑ ̇/ʖ⚍||⎓. ꖎᔑᓭ ᒲᑑ⎓⍑ᔑ ⎓∷ ꖌʖ⨅⍊⨅⚍ ̇/ ℸ ̣ ᓵᔑ𝙹ꖎ ⍑||↸⊣リ⚍|| ᔑ⎓ ̇/'⊣ ᒲᑑᔑ⊣⊣,⎓⨅∴ ʖ⊣ ∷ ̇/⊣⍊||ᓭᔑ!¡ !¡𝙹⨅⎓ᔑ⊣⚍ ꖌᔑ ℸ ̣ ̇/ ᓵ⊣ᑑ⎓ ̇/∷. ⎓⨅∴ ʖ⊣ ʖ⚍⎓∴⨅⨅⨅||, !¡𝙹⨅⎓ᔑ⊣⚍ ∴ᔑ⋮ ℸ ̣ ⊣⊣ᒲ⋮↸. ⍑||ᑑᑑ ℸ ̣ ⨅ᓵ ᒲ⋮ ̇/ 𝙹ᓭᔑᒲᒲ ⍑⎓ ∷∴ ̇/⨅ ꖌℸ ̣ ∴ ᒲꖌ⨅ᒷꖎ ⍑ℸ ̣ ∷ ∴⎓ʖℸ ̣ ⍊. ᑑリ ̇/⎓!¡ 𝙹ᓭꖌ∷ リ⚍↸ᒷ ℸ ̣ ∷ ̇/↸ ᒲᓵ ꖌℸ ̣ ∴ ᒲ𝙹ᓭ ̇/∴ℸ ̣ ⨅ᓵ ⎓⨅ ̇/ ⊣⍊𝙹⋮ ̇/⍑⋮ ||ᓭ∴ᓭ ℸ ̣ ̇/∴ℸ ̣ ⎓. ᓭ⊣ꖎ ᔑᓵリ ╎ᔑᒷ⨅ ꖌℸ ̣ ∴∷ ⊣ꖎ↸リʖ⋮⍊?⚍⎓ ╎ᓭ∷𝙹∴? h⎓ ⨅⨅ ̇/ ̇/𝙹╎?
> 
> :) 
> 
> Be prepared. there is one chapter left before the storm hits. Decoding this will give you some clues for what may happen.
> 
> fyi- it's coded twice!
> 
> Now is the time to drop any theories in the comments. Just a bit to go before the plot really kicks into gear.
> 
> Good luck
> 
> :) 


	14. -Thirteen- The Calm

Tubbo really liked bees.

He walked onto the roof and took a breath of fresh air. His hive buzzed out to greet him. He laughed as the bees buzzed around him, bumping into him on occasion. He set down a small bowl of sugar water and watched the bees buzz around it and drink. He sat on the ledge of the roof. It was fenced in, but there was just enough room for him to dangle his legs off the edge.

It was rare for him to get a break this long. Usually, Tommy was dragging him this way and that during their workdays. Tubbo watched the people below him. It was around six, and he'd brought chips up with him so he could chill out with the bees. Almost everyone was staying late tonight- Dream was going to take all of them out for dinner later.

There was an air of calm as he ate his chips. Usually, calm was interrupted by an emergency, so Tubbo was still a bit on edge. He hummed and looked around. His bees buzzed around him, happy to just be there.

He stretched and yawned and then ate a few chips. He thought about what he was planning on doing later- hanging out with Tommy, mostly. He was thinking about setting up some game servers for the heroes to play on.

"It's just been so chill today, you know?" Tubbo said to the bees. They buzzed around him.

"It has." A voice said from behind him. Tubbo nearly jumped out of his skin. He turned around to see Karl, in his signature multi-colored hoodie. "I think it won't be anymore though."

"Well, why's that?" Tubbo said with a frown. He stood up, his chips abandoned. "What's going on?"

"We got a report there was suspicious activity on the docks or something. Wilbur called all hands on deck for it- he got a message or something. Seems important. Meet everyone down in the lobby." Karl said, starting back down the stair

"Everyone?" Tubbo asked. It must be serious if everyone was going.

"Yep, the whole staff. Sap and Finn and Fundy and Me, too." Karl laughed. "Don't know how much help we can be other than just... crowd control."

Tubbo nodded and Karl went down the stairs. He started telling his bees where to meet up with him. All hands on deck meant he'd need most of them, too.

\----------

Tommy was in the kitchen with Dream and George when the alert went off. It rang through the cafeteria. The trio looked at each other with curiosity. Everyone's eyes went to George. He'd been there the longest.

"What? Don't expect me to know. The last time that alarm was used was back when villains did something unexpected and we needed a quick meeting,"

There were a few seconds. You could almost see the cogs turning in their heads. Tommy was the first to realize what the alarm probably meant.

"Oh, we all need to meet up!" Tommy announced. The others came to the same realization quickly. Usually, they were smarter than this, but they weren't really thinking about work at that moment. They'd been talking about cooking, which Tommy was not good at.

Tommy had been saying that he once tried to make rice with Gatorade and the other two had been losing it, laughing at his description of the rice. Dream was desperately trying to convince George to make and eat the rice.

After they got back in the work mindset, the trio was on it immediately. Dream vaulted over the counter while the other two just used the door next to it. They all ran through the door of the cafe towards the lobby.

Tommy fell back a bit. He hadn't felt the best, lately. It felt he'd hit a wall- he wasn't making any progress in training and his brain felt like it frizzed out all the time. He shook it off and ran into the lobby.

They ran in and saw Wilbur, Philza, and Techno crowded around in the back of the room. Finn was typing away furiously at his computer.

"What's up?" asked Dream, looking around at the situation.

"We've got a group mission to go on- all of us. Wil just got a message and Finn just got an anonymous tip pointing to an attack at the docks. Wil thinks it may be the Assembly group," Phil said. "Karl, go get Tubbo. He's having on the roof." Karl gave a nod and started up the stairs.

\----------

The trio had been in the lobby, just enjoying the sun that came through the glass windows and chatting. Finn was typing. Wilbur had been trying to get as much sun as he could- he'd read sun helped illnesses and he may have not been sick, but he was hoping it could help the symptoms he'd been feeling.

Phil fixed Wilbur with a worried glance. Wilbur had noticed Phil had been sending him quite a few of these glances lately. Wilbur had probably flashed a red flag without even knowing, but Phil must have picked up on it. He'd have to be more careful.

They'd been sitting in silence, watching people walk by the Hub. It was calm. Finn's Everyone was a bit tense- as we've mentioned before, calm never stays in Illosia

Then Finn's phone rang. Everyone seemed to relax a bit like they were waiting for something to ruin this. Finn picked it up.

"Uh-huh... alright... Oh. Oh, okay." Finn looked up at the heroes before hanging up. "The docks. The Assembly gave us a tip, or it was a prank. Not likely though, we've kept all of this stuff top secret. They're going to attack at dusk."

"Oh shit," Phil said. The Sleepy Bois all stood up and started moving, getting ready to head out.

Wilbur's phone, which had been left on the chair he was at, buzzed. He walked it over and picked it up.

-unknown number-  
 _ **one image attached**_

Wilbur frowned and opened the message. It was Niki's calling card.

-unknown number-  
 **it may be best to bring the whole gang, no?  
you don't want another... incident to happen, id suggest more backup.  
It could happen to one of your friends, i don't know! :)**

**-You Have Blocked This Number-**

"Shit, fuck..." Wilbur murmured. Phil looked up from where he was strapping on his sandals

"You alright over there, Wilbur?" He could tell something was up, because his next line was, "Oh. What's happened?"

"Just got a message from one of them. They make it seem like it's gonna be big. Finn, call an emergency meeting."

"On it." Phil hit a small button on the edge of the counter and an alarm flashed through the Hub.

A few seconds later, the others came running into the room.

A minute after that, Fundy, Karl, and Tubbo came down.

Philza got up on a chair to try and shush everyone.

"MATES!" A wave of silence fell over the crowd. "Thank you. We've gotten word that there's going to be an attack at the docks, and it's going to be bad. We need all hands on deck for this."

There was a murmur of agreement and Wilbur spoke up.

"We have about an hour until dusk. Everyone, get your stuff and meet up..." He paused, trying to think of a good place around town.

"At the clocktower!" Fundy spoke up.

"Yeah, there," Wilbur said.

The group all disassembled and started getting ready. No one noticed Fundy pull out his phone and send some texts.

\----------

On the other side of town, Skeppy got a message. He read over it and thrust the phone towards Bad.

"That's Punz's symbol... Oh fudge, they're going to attack the clocktower?" Bad looked up. "We've got an hour, we gotta get there!"

And so they got their stuff and started walking.

\---------

The storm was approaching, the trap had been laid.

Now it's a question of if our heroes could survive it or not.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter... will be filler lol. its a small chatbox, mostly just so the storm is ch 15
> 
> THEN we'll hit what i have nicknamed "the storm."
> 
> Shit's gonna get real, tensions are gonna boil over.
> 
> Someone will punch Mr. Tommyinnit.
> 
> I am more excited about writing one of these things than the other.
> 
> ALSO! imma give you a hint for the code from last ch. Vigenere.  
> ill post the decoded thing even if u don't get it but it'll be useless by then!
> 
> -Sunny


	15. -Fourteen- Message Sent

-thats it thats the whole ch.-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HINT FOR THE DECODE THINGY :D --- Vigenere !
> 
> anyway this is my least favorite ch. its so low effort and i just dislike it,  
> hope you liked it!! see you tmmrw!!  
> -sunny


	16. -Fifteen- The Storm

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Uncoded thing!  
> A storm of violence will come over the city.  
> heroes will be forced to fight.  
> The venom of silence flows through one's veins,  
> one is a lockbox waiting to be opened.  
> One is kindling, waiting for a spark.  
> They all are about to feel the twist of a knife.  
> Every card will fall to the table  
> all the secrets made clear.  
> But how will they survive?  
> In peace? Or in fear?
> 
> if you wanted to decode it, you'd have to put it thru a galactic translator and then decode it. It was in the vingenre cipher and the key was Storm.
> 
> Enjoy the ch!!

They all met up at the clocktower.

Tommy had been running behind, so the heroes were gathering their composer and getting ready to attack- or defend, they weren't sure yet. Two other people hung around their group- a man in blue and one in black. They hadn't done anything suspicious yet, so the heroes let them hang around the group.

They were planning out everything. Phil would do the initial scout and report back. Fundy, Sapnap, Finn, and Karl would get people out of the area. Tommy would stay with Techno and help him. Tubbo and Wilbur would stay together and clear the area. Dream and George would go in next.

Skeppy and Bad were extremely nervous that the heroes would call them out, but nothing happened. The ones who had saved them didn't seem to remember them. Skeppy wasn't sure if he was glad or offended. They listened in on the hero's plans and figured they would just try and interject themselves whenever they thought they'd be helpful.

A purple-ish fog began to drift in. Fog was normal in the city- Most of the heroes barely noticed. Skeppy did. He quickly pulled up his mask and Bad did the same. They looked at each other as if daring the other to say something.

Bad was the one to do it. "HEY!" He called to the heroes. They all looked up at him. "DON'T BREATHE IN THE FOG! IT'S A VILLIAN'S POWER!"

All of the heroes rushed to cover their mouths.

"How did you know?" Tubbo asked, quirking his head.

"We've fought that guy before- we're something of vigilantes around here. I'm Skeppy and this is Bad." Skeppy said. 

"Oh, I saved you once!" Techno said with a snap. "Now get on guard. We need to watch out for..."

People came out of the fog, surrounding the heroes. The King's crown glinted.

"Villians." Techno finished.

Eret laughed, trying to make it intimidating. "Welcome to our show, friends."

Action burst out all at once. The heroes engaged with the villains. 

Niki and Sapnap ended up fighting. Sapnap was glad for the ax he'd been allowed to borrow. He quickly whipped out a lighter and sent the flame to the blade.

"Oooh, nifty!" Niki said with a smile. Sapnap smirked back. They traded blows for a while. It was almost sad that Wilbur didn't see it- he would have been able to spot Niki's trap. 

Niki got Sap into the same pattern she'd got Wilbur into a while back. If Wilbur was there, he could have told Sap about her voice. But he wasn't there, so he couldn't.

\----------

Techno went head to head with Punz- two of him, actually. Eret had duplicated him quickly and went to go help Fundy. Spifey had figured out how to counter George and Dream's powers- he put a simple illusionary blindfold over their eyes.

Dream was trying to pull it off, with no success. He tried to slash blindly in Spifey's direction, but Spifey just stepped to the side. Spifey had started working on setting up some terrain. The city faded out of view, a curtain of smoke blocking it.

George collided with Dream and the two fought for a second before realizing that they were fighting the other. Both of their eye covers fell off. Spifey laughed, but quickly realized his mistake. Both of the blindfolded men lunged towards his voice and knocked him over.

\----------

Karl, Skeppy, and Bad ended up near each other. "Well, may as well do it.." Karl said. He pulled out a small blowgun and fired two darts into the shoulders of the other two. He was too quick for them to dodge. The betrayal stung, sure, but both of them realized that they weren't too upset.

Skeppy passed out first, the tranquilizer in the dart coursing through his blood. His mask fell off as he fell to the ground.

Something clicked with Bad as his vision got hazy- he should be angry. He just felt.. neutral. Something felt wrong. Had Karl done this?

Karl sighed as Bad passed out as well. He hated messing with people's emotions, he had to do this to finish the mission. He looked up and started his escape- he'd taken out his targets.

\----------

Wilbur and Philza were left with Fundy. The three formed a triangle, back to back, watching the other fights. The three of them were like a raft in a sea of chaos.

They were fine until Phil yelped as he felt the sting of claws. Wilbur whipped around to see Fundy. A manic glint shown in his eyes. He raked his claws across Phil's back, right in between his wings. It took Wilbur a full second to realize what was happening. He held his hands out, but his powers didn't activate immediately. 

Fundy lunged towards him. Wilbur dodged to the side quickly, missing the swipe of his claws. "Well-" Fundy paused his one-liner to swipe again. Wilbur dodged, but only barely. "You trusted a literal fox, this is what you get."

Swipe, swipe, dodge. Swipe, swipe, dodge. Swipe, swipe.

Pain

\----------

The Clingys were trying to deal with Minx. She laughed as she popped up around them, teleporting too quickly for them to hit. They were back to back, Tommy with his bat raised, and Tubbo clutching his borrowed staff.

Tommy was looking left when a burning pain exploded in his left cheek. He fell over like a sack of potatoes. The coppery taste of blood flooded his mouth.

"TOMMY!" Tubbo yelped. Minx laughed again, though it was mostly just a front. She felt a bit bad, honestly. Hitting children never left a good taste in her mouth.

Tubbo stood over Tommy, trying to defend his fallen friend. Minx popped in and out of view. Tommy wasn't passed out, but he seemed dazed.

"Get away from us!" Tubbo said, in almost a growl. His bees swarmed around him. Minx kept teleporting around. Then she was next to Tubbo, her fist no longer a fist but a grip on her cane. She pulled the bottom off, and a blade glinted.

The next few moments happened in slow motion.

Minx pulled out her sword and gave a devilish grin. Tubbo faced her and stiffened, preparing to get hit. 

Then she was gone. Tubbo didn't yelp. He screamed as a sword pierced his back. It was too deep, he could tell. He had about a five-minute window- if he didn't get a healer to help in five minutes...

He fell to his knees and let out a shriek. He didn't want to die. He was too young. He didn't want to die.

He didn't want to put that grief on Wilbur, on Techno, on Phil.

He didn't want to put that grief on Tommy

Minx's face was full of regret, already. She hadn't meant to go that deep. It was supposed to be a minor wound. They weren't supposed to kill them! Minx didn't want to kill a kid!

Tommy snapped out of his daze quickly. "T-Tubbo?"

His friend didn't respond- his eyes were glazy and tears ran down his face. He watched Tubbo slump over- he couldn't tell if he was dead, dying, or just passed out from pain and shock.

"Tubbo?" Again, no response. "Please, Tubbo."

Silence.

And Tommy felt something inside of him just

Snap.

"TUBBO!" It was less of a question. It was a plead. A wave of force came from Tommy, causing all the fighting to stop. It stopped partly because of everyone being shocked to see such a large reaction.

The other reason is because everyone found their powers to have stopped working. Eret's clone of Punz dissolved. Minx found herself unable to teleport. Spifey's smoke cleared. Phil's wings folded and melded into his back as a tattoo. Dream looked at George's eyes and found that George was not dying, and George realized that he was looking at Dream's eyes without seeing the future.

Fundy laughed with a bit of joy as his fox features dissipated and he became a person- a guy, like everyone else.

Bad and Skeppy both snapped awake, free from Spifey's smoke and the tranquilizer based from it. 

Wilbur's already shaky powers disappeared entirely. He was the one to break the sudden silence.

"Holy shit, Tommy can mute powers."

Tommy was looking around, panicked. He was looking over Tubbo- he couldn't tell if his friend was breathing or not oh God what if Tubbo had died why hadn't Tommy been able to stop it? Why couldn't he stop it he'd been right there! Tommy didn't even notice that his hands were shaking.

Minx was staring at her hands. They weren't red but they were bloody in her eyes. She had just wanted to shock him- that's all this mission was. They wanted to shock the heroes, not kill them. What had she done?

Techno was the first to snap to his senses. "You! Uh, Bad! Get over here!" Techno darted over to Tommy. Tommy was crying, silently. He was watching Tubbo for some sign of life. "Tommy, Tommy can you hear me?" 

Tommy gave a nod, his eyes not leaving Tubbo.

"Alright, Tommy, we need you to calm down. Breathe in, breathe out." Techno demonstrated. "In and out, Tommy. He'll be ok."

Tommy took a shaky breath in, finally looking up at Techno.

"We just need you to drop your power. Just breathe out and release it."

Tommy nodded tearfully, letting his breath out. Everyone felt a sensation like cool water rush over them. Bad had gotten over to Tubbo and let his power out through his fingers. The wound closed a bit. It was still bad, but it wasn't fatal. Bad didn't have enough energy to fully heal it.

Meanwhile, everyone just looked at each other. Fundy had returned to his fox state and Phil's wings were back. Eret sent a message and Niki checked her phone. She leaned towards Sapnap and whispered to him. Sap's eyes went wide and he lit his lighter.

Minx also checked her phone. She looked at Eret and gave a nod.

Most of the heroes had their eyes fixed on Tommy, Techno, Tubbo, and Bad. They didn't notice as Sapnap started towards the clocktower, lit lighter in hand. He entered the wooden building and soon enough, it was smoking.

Bad was the first one to point it out. He just yelped and pointed at the clocktower. Everyone looked back, and the wood was on fire. George (who had looked away from Dream before the power mute ended,) put on his glasses and looked around.

"Crap!" Sap was gone. Most of the villains had disappeared, too. Techno and Bad stood up and started towards the tower, trying to figure out how to put it out.

Wilbur got to see the other thing that happened at that moment. Minx reappeared and grabbed Tommy's arm.

Tommy looked up and met Wilbur's eyes. He reached towards him.

Then he was gone and Wilbur called out his name.

"Shit..." Techno looked at the fire and the lack of Tommy. The situation was not looking good.

"SAP!" Dream called out. The fire had consumed almost the whole tower. "I think Sap's in there." He looked around as if trying to see what everyone else was doing.

George ran in. He covered his mouth with his shirt, ignoring the calls of all the others. He ran up the stairs, trying to dodge the flames.

He found Sapnap where the flames had started. Sap was on his hands and knees, coughing. He saw George run in and reached out a hand. Then, as if he had wasted all of his energy in that simple motion, he passed out.

George ran over and tried to pick him up. People made this look a lot easier in movies. It took a solid 30 seconds and a bit of smoke inhalation, but he got Sapnap on his shoulders eventually. The wood around him crackled.

There was a crack above him. George looked around, panicked. He booked it down the stairs, the cracking getting louder.

Five steps left to the door.

Four

Three 

Two

One

Snap

George watched, in slow motion, as Dream reached towards him. George threw Sapnap out of the clocktower and lunged. He was flying through the air, but then it hit him.

It being the clocktower as it fell.

A beam fell onto his legs, stopping his lunge. Pain shot up his legs. He yelped. Dream (somehow, George had a hard time seeing due to being crushed from the waist down) caught Sap and set him down.

"TECHNO! GET SAP! THE CLOCKTOWER'S GOING DOWN, WE NEED TO GET OUT OF HERE!" Dream shouted out. He ran up to George and started trying to pull him out of the rubble. It took a few seconds, but he got him out and carried him away. 

Techno had got Sap and Finn (who had been in a state of minor shock for most of these events) had grabbed Tubbo. They all ran out of the way as the clocktower fell.

There was a silent, somber, yet hurried procession back to the hub as the heroes thought about what had transpired.

They'd lost Tommy. Tubbo had nearly died. George's legs had been crushed. Sapnap was barely breathing due to smoke inhalation.

  
Our heroes had lost.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hahahahhah one of my favorite chs
> 
> hope you liked it!!
> 
> please don't murder me


	17. -Sixteen- White Walls

Tommy had never been so exhausted.

He'd worn himself out a while ago when he was swinging and biting and just being feral. He was seeing red and just trying to hurt someone and get out. He just wanted to get out and go home.

Tommy had quickly realized it may have been a mistake when they had put him in a bland room. It was totally white- white walls, white floor, white bed, white chair, white desk. The attached bathroom was white and empty as well. He realized he should have looked around and tried to figure out a plan of escape.

Tommy paced around the room for a bit and looked at the walls. They were hard- concrete, probably. No holes, no cracks.

He sat at the desk and opened the drawers. Nothing was in them except for a pencil and a small notebook. "Not so smart, are you, villains!" He held the pencil in his hand like he was going to stab someone. 

His victorious grin dropped quickly. Who was he kidding- a pencil wasn't going to do anything to a woman who could teleport or a man who could increase gravity. In theory, he could silence their powers, but he still didn't know how his powers worked.

Tommy sighed and put the items back. Maybe he could start a journal or something. Nah, he'd only do that if the world went to shit and he and Tubbo were trying to survive the apocalypse in a hell swamp or something.

He sighed again, the lack of things to do making him anxious. He sat down on the bed but quickly flopped over so he was laying down. He couldn't stand looking at the ceiling- it was too white, too bright. He screwed his eyes shut.

Before he could stop it, he was asleep.

\----------

In the other room, the villains had gathered around a small table. Eret had his fingers steepled and was looking down at the floor. Niki's eyes flicked from one person's face to the others quickly. Minx looked down, her hands folded in her lap. Fundy looked at his claws, as if amazed they were there.

The rest of the group seemed to be just watching these few- trying to get a handle on the intensity of the situation without breaking the silence which seemed to be the only thing keeping the peace between all of them.

The person who broke the silence was Eret. He leaned back and pushed his glasses back up. Everyone looked up at him.

"Someone get Quackity, Harvey, Scott, and Jack, we need to debrief with a full assembly gathering." Punz was the one to stand up and dart out of the room, going to grab the four who had stayed behind.

Quackity, Harvey, Scott, and Jack were arguably the quietest member of the assembly. None of them had made a public appearance yet. They had powers that were hard to use in a fight, so they used them in the lab instead. They walked in and took their spots around the table. Scott was a telepath- he could read minds and project his own thoughts into others.

Quackity could make things. As long as he had the material, he could shape it however he wanted. His power was absolutely vital to make Mute. He had to combine the activating agents with the concentrated blood- it was a process just to make one needle-full.

Jack Manifold could control electricity. He was less vital in the process of making Mute- he just needed to take power and put it in the centrifuges and other machines. They were trying to move away from the needle approach and instead make Mute a pill- if they were going to monetize this or have it a constant thing, they'd need to make it easy to take.

Harvey was just fast. He was usually the messenger and picked up the blood bags from the other people's hiding spots. He was key- if he wasn't so fast, they most likely would have been caught a while ago.

As soon as the others had taken their seats, Eret began the debrief. He retold his side of the story, the others jumping in when they had important point. Minx's face went a bit pale as she retold her part. The ones who hadn't been there sat, silent, and maybe just a bit judging. 

Everyone just seemed to look at each other. This went on for another few minutes until Minx stood up, knocking over her chair. She turned around quickly. "I-" she paused and took a breath, "I'm going to go check on the boy. T-Tommy, his name is Tommy."

She was out of the room before anyone could say anything. Everyone's eyes were on her back as the door shut behind her. No one said anything until a solid ten seconds later.

"Well." Punz broke this silence. "Eret, tell them about what Tommy can do."

Eret paused for a second before a small smile broke out on his face. It was only a bit faked. "We've found him, Scott, Harvey, and Quackity. We found someone who can silence powers."

Scott was the first to realize what that meant. "We can finish Mute now!" They'd been stuck on it for a while. They figured out how to transfer the impacts of powers through a needle. They thought that the girl who could dampen powers would be good enough to make a serum to get rid of someone's powers, but Wilbur was evidence that it wasn't enough.

But Tommy, if he could silence powers... They could finally manufacture Mute. Fundy seemed to realize this next, his ears perking up and his eyes widening. He looked back down at his hands. He'd just wanted to be normal. Now that his goal was so close, he knew he'd do anything for it.

Eret had done this for Dream. He had been close with him back when they ruled together. But now, Eret was a bit unsure about all of this. He looked around the table. He knew Fundy's reason for being here, Minx's and Niki's too. Scott had a valiant reason, and Harvey did too. But some of them were just there for power. Eret wasn't sure if he should do this anymore. He glanced at everyone's faces. Soon after, he realized something. He was too deep in to get out of it now.

Niki was worried. She had started a while ago for a not-so-heroic reason. But now, she was here for her friends. For Fundy and Minx and Eret and Scott. Seeing them so tense sent shivers up her spine. She just wanted them all to be happy.

The meeting was ended and almost everyone went to their rooms. They'd decided it would be best if they all stayed together after their public stunt. That way they'd have a chance if the heroes all marched in, looking to get Tommy or just get revenge.

\----------

Minx stormed out of the meeting room and went to her room. She sat down in her chair and ran her hands through her hair. She felt guilty. Why did she feel guilty? She wasn't the one who gave the fucking order to grab the fucking twat.

But she had been the one to teleport him out. She had been the one to do the action.

She sat in her room for a few hours, scrolling through her phone and trying to find something to make her forget what had transpired, how she'd almost killed a child, how she'd kidnapped one now-

She had to make up for it somehow. She searched through her desk drawer. _There_. She pulled out her watercolor set. She knew he should have a notebook- maybe he'd make something nice. 

After putting that in her bag (and leaving her knives and cane in her room, she didn't want Tommy to get those off of her.), she went down to the kitchens. They'd need to feed him, anyways. She made a PB&J (it was the only thing she knew kids liked for sure) and some water for him. Then she went down to his cell.

The Assembly had rented out a small apartment building a while ago- it had enough room for each of the members if they needed to hide out, and one other room, along with the nessecites and a basement, which they used to develop Mute. The extra room was turned into a holding cell of sorts- that's where Tommy was now. It'd been about three hours. She knocked on his door and waited.

\----------

Tommy had woken up a half-hour before Minx knocked. He felt a bit less tired- his power explosion had taken a lot out of him.

While he was thinking of powers... He tried to call them to his hands. The field of energy had looked like a moving scribble, glowing a bright white. He figured his hands should light up with a similar scribble-looking thing. He couldn't be sure. He didn't know how powers were supposed to work!

He was frustrated and not paying attention. Then a spark popped off of his hand. He jumped before realizing it was his power. He shook his hands out, trying to get the feeling of using his powers out of his hands. It felt odd, not unlike when your hand is just waking up.

He tried to call his powers back again, but they just didn't seem to be willing to listen. He sighed and stopped paying attention. _Pop_. Another spark appeared. "Aw, shit!" He just couldn't seem to get it to listen when he wanted to.

Then Tommy got an idea. He tried to bring his powers and then stopped, waiting for a spark to pop out. 

Nothing happened. Tommy sighed and ran a hand through his hair. He thought about flopping down on his bed and going back to sleep. Maybe it was just a dream. Maybe if he went to sleep, he'd wake up at home, before things had gone wrong.

Maybe he'd wake up back in his pile of blankets, Wilbur and Tubbo and Phil asleep in the room around him, Techno barreling in moments later. Even with Tubbo's fever and the panic he'd felt the night before, Tommy thought that day had been one of the best in his life.

Tommy decided to stand up and he started pacing in the small free area of the room. "I wanna go home." He murmured to himself. He said those words over and over, pacing, until they meant nothing.

The knock on his door made him jump. "Uh. Come in," he said, sitting back down on the bed.

Minx stuck her head in. "Tommy?"

"Yeah, that's me. I don't know who else you were expecting. It's not like you kidnapped Tubbo too." Tommy regretted those words as soon as he said them. Minx's already sad face gave nothing away and he just made himself wonder. Was Tubbo here? Had they gotten him, too?

"I- I'm so so-" Minx stopped herself. She wanted to apologize. She hated seeing him here. Tommy's face, which had been animated in their battle as he made faces at her and struggled to fight her, was almost totally neutral. She ended up just saying, "I brought you stuff."

Tommy watched indifferently as Minx set the water and sandwich on his desk. She put down another cup of water and sent the watercolors and paintbrush down next to it.

"What am I supposed to do with that?" Tommy asked. Minx looked up, startled.

"Uhm, paint. I figured it may have been boring if you were just sitting here. And I didn't know if you'd want to write or anything- you can use the notebook to paint instead."

"Oh. I guess it's better than just sitting here and trying to work on my-" He cut himself off. Didn't Techno always quote that Sun Tzu guy? Hadn't he said something about not letting your enemy know your plans? Damn, Tommy missed hearing Techno say funny stuff. It'd only been about four hours, but as far as Tommy knew, he had another 20 years before he saw the sun again, let alone Techno and the rest of his friends.

"...Work on your powers?" Minx finished for him. He grimaced.

"I was trying to keep it a secret, but yeah."

"I... I could... no..." Minx stuttered a bit, trying to find the right words.

"What?"

"Tommy, next time I see you I need to tell you about my idea." Minx started to leave, but stuck her head back in and spoke again, quieter this time.

"Tommy, I want to help you get out of here."

\----------

Niki watched Minx leave her room. She watched Minx make the sandwich and she watched Minx walk down to the holding cell.

She listened through the door to Tommy and Minx's conversation. Then she hid in the next room over and barely heard Minx's last line. As she did, her breath hitched.

What was Minx doing? Niki sighed and put her forehead on the wall. She just wanted her friends to be happy. Why did something have to tear them apart every time things seemed to be looking up?

And what side would she fall on when Tommy got out of here and Minx rebelled?


	18. -Seventeen- Planning

Dream was terrified, honestly.

Tubbo, Sapnap, and, George were all in the small hospital room near the top of the Hub. None of them were awake. Sapnap was breathing through an oxygen mask, both of George's legs were in a cast, and Tubbo was on so many machines he looked like he was tied up in wires. Tubbo's wound wouldn't have been too bad if he'd gotten more imedienent treatment- he'd bled out quite a bit.

It hurt to see his friends laid out, each helpless. Healers rushed in and out. Dream ended up staying in the room overnight- He couldn't stand the thought of going to an empty apartment. Dream slept in the armchair. Phil had also stayed overnight, taking the small loveseat.

He hadn't slept, really. He was sure Phil hadn't slept earlier. They both moved too restlessly for that, listening carefully for the beep of each of their heart monitors.

Everyone had a moment of panic early on in the night. They'd given George some meds and he passed out. The healers were working on George, putting casts on his legs, when Sapnap's monitor had beeped. His O2 levels were dangerously low.

There were a few tense minutes as the healers tried to get everything sorted out. Eventually that beeping stopped and things calmed down. But Dream was sure both him and Phil were waiting for that beeping to start again. They were waiting, hoping it wouldn't happen but waiting, for a flatline.

\---------

Morning came all too slowly. Both Dream and Phil were up when the first bit of light shone through the windows. Wilbur, Bad, Skeppy, and Techno were there soon after- Even though everyone was tired, it seemed like no one slept.

Tubbo, for better or worse, was the first of the injured to wake up. Both Dream and Phil rushed to his side. He sat up and stretched and looked around.

"Good morning!" Tubbo said, his cheerfulness a direct counter to the energy of the room. "Did we win?" He seemed to do a headcount, his smile dropping. "Where's Tommy?" Dread pooled in the bottom of Dream's stomach.

The silence weighed heavily on the room. Tubbo looked around, worry growing on his face. "Well? Where is he? Did he go home already?" Tubbo asked. His voice was painted with cheerfulness, but his panic shone through.

"Tubbo..." Wilbur was the one to speak up. "He's gone."

"What do you mean, gone? Gone home?" Tubbo said, his eyes wide. "Or dead?" _Oh God_ , he thought. _Oh God Tommy's dead and it's my fault i should have been stronger i could have protected him why am i so weak i-_

"No, he's not dead, as far as we know. Kidnapped." Phil cut in.

"We have to go save him." Tubbo said. He sat up and started trying to get out of bed. Wilbur rushed over and stopped him.

"Tubbo-!" Dream stood up but Tubbo quickly settled back down, dropping his head.

"Please leave." Tubbo said, putting his hands to his face. His hair fell in front of it just enough to hide his expression.

Everyone looked at each other and stepped out of the room. Everyone except for Phil. Phil sat down on the end of the bed, and watched Tubbo carefully. Heaving, yet silent sobs overtook the boy's body. Phil reached over and rubbed his back, trying to comfort him.

"Philza..." Tubbo said, looking just a bit. His eyes were full of tears. He met Phil's eyes and glanced away quickly "Philza, he's going to alright, right?" He tried to wipe his tears away, but more kept coming. "He isn't going to die, right?" Tubbo looked into Phil's eyes again, searching for an answer.

"We're going to get him back. We can't just leave him there. We'll get him before they can do anything to him- we just need to prep a bit."

Tubbo nodded, taking a shaky inhale. "Phil," He paused and took another breath. "Phil, it wasn't my fault, right? It's not my fault I couldn't save him, right?"

 _Oh_. That's what had the boy so troubled. A hero complex.

"Tubbo, it's not your fault. It's not your job to be responsible for Tommy. If anything, it's the villian's fault."

Tubbo gave another nod, although Phil could tell he wasn't totally convinced. Phil gave him a smile and pulled him in for a hug.

The others were probably debriefing in the hall. He could catch up later. Right now, Tubbo needed just a bit of comfort.

And Phil was glad that he could provide it.

\----------

"So. What happened last night? I was there and all, but a full retelling may help all of us piece together things we didn't see." Dream said. The others all nodded- made enough sense.

After everyone had pieced together the timeline, discussion stalled. They had no idea why the Assemby would want to take Tommy, out of all of them. He had just developed a power, but that wasn't too special.

"Maybe they just needed a child?" Bad piped up.

"For what? Selli-" Skeppy startedl

"Not whatever you're about to say. Maybe chores or something? Like, they're going to make him clean their house!"

Techno snorted. "Like the orphans in Annie?"

"Yeah!"

Wilbur cleared his throat. He'd thought about it and he thought it all had clicked into place for him. There was only one issue- He needed to tell them about his Mute issue.

"Gentlemen. I think I have something." He bit his lip. That sentence put him too far in, no takebacks now. Wilbur took a breath and pulled up his sleeve.

Gasps of shock chorused throuought the room. Everyone seemed to have different reactions- Bad put his hands to his mouth and muttered a _Languge!_ to Skeppy, who softly said "What the fuck...". Dream pulled down his mask, as if to get a better look. Wilbur was careful not to look at his face. Techno just tilted his head, his mouth open slightly in shock.

"Not pretty, huh? The girl Sap was fighting- Niki- she has a charm speak power of some sort. Charmed me into stabbing myself with a needle full of black sludge. Ever since, my powers have been on the fritz. I think it was a power dampening serum."

Techno and Dream put the rest together at the same time. They both blurted it out at once- "They needed Tommy's blood to make a power muting serum!"

"Yup. I don't know how long we have until they come up with it. Once they get it, who knows what they could do."

"They could mute the entire city, aside from themselves!" Bad gasped. Wil nodded.

"We need to get to work making an antidote for this, stat!" Techno proclaimed. Everyone nodded.

There was a moment of silence.

"None of us know anything about medicine, right?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so how we doin, yall?
> 
> sorry for the lack of ch yesterday- its tech week and I am swamped.
> 
> Hope you liked this ch!!! see you next time !! :D
> 
> -sunny


	19. -Eighteen- Not Enough Time

Both sides knew- time was of the essence.

Minx knew the Assembly would bleed Tommy dry within two days if they had the chance. Eret would try to slow them down, but once Fundy and Punz and the others got a taste of the blood (not literally), Minx was pretty sure they would overthrow him to just mass produce Mute.

The heroes knew it in a much more literal sense- The first 72 hours of any missing persons case are the most vital, and they'd already missed about 12 of those. 

Bad spent a lot of the time with George- he couldn't do anything for Sap's lungs, but he carefully sped up the healing of George's crushed legs. By lunch, George could walk again.

Sap was alright, once he got a few hours with the oxygen mask. He woke up a bit after George, who woke up just a few minutes after Tubbo.

Everyone was ready to leave again as soon as they got out of bed. Bad and the other healers who were still there had to convince them to stay in bed for just a bit longer. Wilbur called the people who were (already) planning to stage the rescue of Tommy. Most of the active-duty heroes had already claimed a spot on the mission. Bad and Skeppy had slipped in, also.

There was only one issue- they had no idea where to find their damsel (Techno pondered the male version of damsel. The English major in him was showing) in distress.

\----------

Minx was trying to think of a way to fix that. Unfortunately, most of those landed her in jail.

She went into Tommy's room an hour before Scott and Karl went to go draw his blood.

Tommy startled as Minx walked in. He was taping up the next piece of his watercolor galaxy- he'd started as soon as she left the last time. 

"Minx! You nearly made me tape it up wrong!" He huffed. Minx almost laughed as he whipped around and put up the panting correctly.

"Tommy, so you know I want to help you get out of here, right?" Tommy nodded. "Alright. I'm going to give the heroes a clue on where you are- something that they can't tie back to me. Then I'll stay as a part of this and help funnel info to you."

Tommy nodded again. He paused, and Minx waited. He hesitated a second before speaking up. "Minx, do you think you could help me train my power a bit? Just enough to summon it- I don't want to do much more than that without..." he stopped there, Phil's name on his tongue. He wanted his first official training session to be with Phil and Techno, and he wanted to be trained as hard as Tubbo was in the beginning.

"I understand. But yeah, I can help!" Minx said. She checked and made sure the door was locked. "Alright, try it."

Tommy showed her what he had so far- a small spark.

And thus started almost a full hour of training. Both of them started out trying to be friendly, but soon enough it was just them cussing at each other.

Tommy made a fair amount of progress- he figured out how to summon his power to his hands and how to temporaitly mute Minx's powers.

At the end of the hour, Minx started to get more careful. Any creak in the hall had her teleporting back to her room.

At the end of an hour, a clock's chimes rang out throughout the house. Minx checked her watch and looked up quickly. "Shit!"

Tommy had his power impacting her, but he dropped it quickly. She whipped around. "They're coming!" She hissed before disappearing. 

Tommy quickly sat down on his bed and tried to steady his breathing and wipe the sweat off of his forehead. Using his power was more physically intensive than he thought it would be.

Soon enough, a blue-haired man he'd never met and Karl were in his room. Karl looked a bit forlorn. The blue-haired man was smiling, but he seemed like he was sizing Tommy up. Karl wheeled in a small cart with a machine on it- something meant to take his blood, he assumed

"Do this the easy way, please. It shouldn't take too long. We just need a bit of blood." The blue-haired man said.

"Who are you?" Tommy said, just a bit spitefully.

"Oh, sorry, I forgot to introduce myself! I'm Scott." Scott gave a thumbs up and a wider smile. He walked up a bit closer. "Please hold out your arm now!" Tommy did, looking away.

"Thank you." Tommy winced just a bit as he felt Scott insert a needle.

He hated it here, but only half the time. The time with Minx was good.

\----------

Minx had come up with an idea based on some of what Tommy told her- mainly that Tubbo was the one who was least likely to arrest her on sight. And that he took lunch on the roof when he needed time to think.

The mission was simple- she found the coordinates of their hideout and jotted them down. Then she teleported to the roof. It was around noon, she thought.

She was right. Tubbo was standing on the roof, sulking. There were bees around him, but they were focused on trying to cheer him up.

She cleared her throat. "Don't attack!" She said.

Tubbo jumped around, ready to attack. But he didn't.

"Tubbo, right?" she asked. Tubbo gave a careful nod. "Alright, alright. I'm Minx- the one who took Tommy. But it was a mistake, this was all a mistake."

Tubbo's guard dropped a bit. "What do you want with me?"

Minx dropped her note. "It's got coordinates on it. Get the heroes to launch a rescue, I'll..." She took a breath. These people, Eret, Fundy, Niki, they were her friends.

"I'll betray them and deliver him to you. Safely."

"I-" Tubbo started, but Minx was already gone. He picked up the note. Something about the way Minx was speaking... She was telling the truth.

He threw open the door and rushed down the stairs to tell the others.

\---------

Mute was finished within the hour. Niki was to try the new version on someone again.

Her smile was plastered on as Fundy said that she should do it on Wilbur again. She didn't want to. He seemed nice. And if what she felt brewing was about to happen, she wanted to be able to go onto the other side without fighting or convincing anyone of her loyalty.

But if it didn't spill over... if tensions softened soon...

She went to Eret for guidance.

"Eret." He looked up, his eyes glowing softly from under his glasses. " He had been reading something. "Eret, are we going to do this?"

He looked around, a bit worried. "Do what, Niki?" A hidden message was under those words- something about the other hearing.

She ignored it. "Are we going to leave the group? Minx is already planning on it. We're about to go so far past our line of ethics- Fundy will, I know it. He's too determined." She looked him dead in the eye. "He'll kill Tommy just for a chance to be normal. If he takes Mute and Copy..."

Copy had been their first project- a pill that let you have the powers of whoever the blood was from. They had a collection of different versions of Copy. Fundy could just take any of them and be somewhat unstoppable.

Especially if they went through with the first part of the plan. They'd become the most powerful group.

By muting the powers of the whole city. They had a method- Quackity had easy access to the water supply of Illosia. They'd be forced to drink the Muting water. It's not like the city could get water from the surrounding oceans, either.

Eret seemed to connect the dots seconds later. "Oh god. We've set this up. We've set up this power grasp. And Fundy is determined enough to follow it through."

"Are we going to split off?"

Eret paused, stuck. He was the only wall stopping Fundy from taking control of the program and, eventually, the city. The heroes wouldn't stand a chance if they were Muted. He could tell them. He could stop this. He could fix it.

But would the heroes trust him? Could he make up for what he'd done?

"Niki. We need... We need more time."

"Eret," Niki leaned close to him and pushed down his glasses. Her eyes bored into his. He leaned back. No one looked this close into his eyes, usually.

"Eret, we don't have any more time."

The clock chimed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :D hope you enjoyed! see you next ch !  
> -sunny


	20. -Nineteen- Final Preparations

Tubbo delivered the note to Dream, who quickly figured out it was. An emergency meeting was called. The heroes began to prep.

Tubbo was in just a bit of conflict. Something about how Minx was acting made him see her as trustworthy, but then again...

He shook his head and looked back up. Dream was saying something... probably something important. It went in one ear and out of the other. All that stayed was that they had three hours until they were planning to head out

Tubbo nodded and smiled. Phil looked at him, a worried look on his face. Phil was the best one here at knowing when something was up.

Phil ruffled Tubbo's hair and gave him a smile. Trying to reassure him.

It only worked a tiny bit.

\----------

Wilbur was poked with needles throughout the next few hours- Some of the more scientific heroes had shown up.

The scientists were often at other jobs, so it was nice to see a few familiar, yet rare, faces.

"Aph! Put this sample in the centrifuge for me!" Dan pulled his goggles up and tossed a small vial to Aphmau, who was sitting across the room. She barely caught it.

"Y'know, you should have mentioned this before it got this bad," Antfrost said from across the room. He carefully adjusted his microscope before looking up at Wil. "This stuff's probably all through your system now."

Wilbur shuddered. "That's a great thought, Ant. Thanks."

"Sorry!"

"He's right though- it'll be much harder to remove now." Aphmau finished attaching the vial to a centrifuge. The machine started spinning and she walked over. Dan took his swivel chair over to the computer screen and Aph started patching up Wilbur's arm.

"That mark looks nasty, not gonna lie," Dan said as he started typing out some reports. "It's suprising no one noticed it- it's clearly meant to be there."

Wilbur looked up, a bit shocked. "What'd you mean?"

"The wound wouldn't just be like that. They added a dye or something to mark you." Ant clarified.

"Ah, that makes sense. They did say I was a prototype..."

Everyone paused and looked up at him. Aph said what all the scientists seemed to be thinking- "Are they planning to make a final version of this? That mutes powers?"

Wilbur nodded. That probably would have been info they would have liked to know a bit ago. The scientists all turned back to their work, doubly focused.

"You're dismissed. We've gotta get to work on an antidote." Dan said, waving Wil out of the room.

\----------

Techno paced the lobby as the rest of the heroes assigned to this mission entered the room. It was just the heroes who'd been with them on the original mission- no one new. Well, as long as you counted Bad and Skeppy as returners, which Techno did. 

Sapnap decided to go, but Finn was going to stay. He figured it would be best for them to have someone in the base. 

Dream went up and gave another speech- he sure seemed to like those. Techno fiddled with a pencil, not listening. Tubbo was also just staring off into space, so Techno didn't feel too bad about it.

Dread was weighing on him- something about the idea of Tommy's powers had thrown him off. When Tommy had accidentally muted him...

Techno shuddered at the memory. He had felt so vulnerable and slow compared to how he was normally. He'd felt weak. Techno didn't know how people could stand living like that. Of course, that was normal to them.

Techno jumped as people began standing up around him. He'd zoned out for longer than he meant too- they were getting ready to leave already. He sighed and started walking.

\----------

George's legs were shaky as he walked down the sidewalk. It may have been that they had recently been crushed and pieced back together. More likely, it was nerves.

He watched Sapnap glance around nervously. It may have been a better idea to have left him at the Hub. Sap had told George what had happened in the clocktower, and it sounded like it left an impression on him.

Sap had described the feeling of having his body taken over in great detail, to the point where George had to tell him to move on with the story. He also mentioned the feeling of having his lungs fill up with smoke.

Even now, George noticed Sap's breaths were quicker than usual. Almost as if he was terrified the air would become smoke any second. As if he was terrified that he would suffocate on normal air.

George walked a bit quicker to make it to Sapnap, and gave him a thumbs up. Sap looked up, smiled, and gave one back.

"How're you doing?" Sap asked George. He was quite hushed, but everyone else's voice covered his anyways.

"Good. Better than a few hours ago. I can walk now." Sap had left the hospital room before getting to see George's full recovery, so this could qualify as news. Except for the fact that George had been walking beside him for the past five minutes.

"I see. Are you ready for this?" Sap asked. George noticed his hands were shaking.

"Not really, honestly." Sapnap seemed a bit surprised by this answer. "I mean, we did just get ambushed less than a day ago."

"True. I-" Sapnap paused, trying to find the right words. "I don't want to go up against her again."

George took a second to remember who he was referring to. "The charmspeaker?"

Sap gave a nod, tensing a bit. George realized he'd sounded a bit incredulous. "You saw the things she made me do. She made me spread the fire in the clock tower. She nearly killed me! And technically, she almost killed you!" Sapnap snapped

George gave a nod. "No need to get so defensive, I was just making sure I was thinking of the right person. I'm not eager to fight her either."

Sapnap untensed, nodding and letting out a breath. "Yeah, alright."

Dream whistled sharply, drawing not only the attention of the two roommates but also the rest of the group. He checked his map and then the note, and gave a nod.

"We're here."

Somewhere, a clock chimed.

\----------

Minx tore through her drawers, trying to figure out what she would need. Soon enough, she'd be on the other side. She tossed another shirt in her suitcase, along with her best dress.

She glanced at the clock. She didn't have enough time! Minx cussed aloud and ran a hand through her hair. 

She grabbed some more of her favorite clothes, and tossed them into the case. She turned around, about ready to close it and stick it under her bed- she could tele back later and grab it.

A stack of papers on her desk caught her eye. Tommy had given her all of his watercolors- he didn't want the villains to have them but he couldn't take them with him. He'd said she seemed like a good alternative. She softened a bit at the sight.

Those were placed much more gently into the suitcase. Then it was zipped up and placed in the attic- she had access to it from her closet.

She'd come back for them later. And then she could be sure Tommy got his watercolors back.

\----------

Fundy watched Minx pack through her keyhole. He grimaced. She was clearly leaving.

From the info that Scott had just told him, Eret and Niki would be the only ones left who weren't in the breakoff group. They'd be hard to get rid of, but the new group would find a way.

They'd found their own way this far. What was stopping them from pushing a bit further

 _Fundy,_ Scott's voice rang out in Fundy's thoughts, _They're here._

_Good. Get everyone ready._

Fundy paused, looking around, then down at his paws- they would be hands soon enough.

_We're out of time_

And a clock chimed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> btw the clock chimes in this chapter and the last all happen at the same time!  
> hope you enjoyed!! see you next time :D
> 
> -sunny


	21. -Twenty- Miscalculations

It started raining seconds after the chime sounded. 

Tommy couldn't see outside, but the sound of rain pattering against the roof was enough to let him know that it was happening. He paced his room, clenching and unclenching his fists. Minx was supposed to be here by now.

His door opened and he whipped around, a smile on his face. It quickly faded, though.

Punz laughed. "Were you waiting for someone?" He and Karl stood in the door. Karl looked a bit guilty, but Punz had a triumphant smirk on his face. "Come here."

Tommy took a step back and let out a cry. The air around him became crushing as Punz increased the gravity around him. All of his breath was pushed out of his lungs and he couldn't inhale. 

"Punz!" Karl said, a bit shocked. 

"What?" Punz said. Tommy felt the pressure release from around him. He gasped, drawing in as much air as possible before falling into sputtering coughs.

Karl looked to Punz and then to Tommy. "I-I'll take care of him. Fundy would be upset if you damaged the merchandise..."

Punz scoffed. "Fine." Karl entered the room and gently grabbed Tommy's arm. He started to pull away but paused as a sense of calm washed over him.

"I'm so sorry about this, Tommy..." Karl said. Something clicked into place- _He's messing with my emotions, making me..._ Tommy tried to place what emotion he was feeling, but it didn't come to him.

He was tugged out of the room and didn't have the energy or will to fight back. Somewhere in the back of his brain, he wanted to fight, but he just... couldn't. 

He did manage to look around and see the halls. He got a general idea of where he was going. Punz shoved him in an elevator and they went down. Time blurred together- they went down four floors. Tommy was put in a small, padded, white room.

When Karl let go of his arm, his anger came back full force, giving him a bit of whiplash.

"LET ME GO!!" He said, lunging at Punz who was in the doorway. Punz quickly shut the door. Tommy collided with the padded backside of the door. He banged on it, yelling.

It was silent. No one said anything in response. His throat felt like it was tightening and hot tears filled his eyes, threatening to spill over.

This was bad. Tommy assumed they'd figured out about him and Minx's plans. Tommy punched the padded wall again. As far as she would know, he would have just gone missing. The tears spilled over as a memory of Tubbo's smile flashed in his head. 

Was he ever going to be able to see his friend again? 

Would he be able to see the people he thought of as family again?

\----------

Minx shrieked as her door was thrown open. Fundy came in with a snarl of a grin on his face.

"What's the scream for, Minx?" Fundy said, his eyes telling her that he already knew.

"Get out of my fucking room, motherfucker!" Minx screamed. She tried to run past him, trying to conserve her energy for the later battle. Fundy grabbed her arm. His grip was like iron. The fox's claws cut through her sleeve and drew blood.

"Neither of us will be going anywhere until this siege is over." He pulled her back farther. Minx tried to struggle away. Fundy's claws only dug deeper into her forearm.

She inhaled sharply. This had not been her plan. She was just supposed to get Tommy and get him out. How had Fundy found out about this?

Fundy laughed. Scott stuck his head in. "He has a mind reader, Minx. Or am I just that forgettable?"

"Scott, you bastard!" Minx said. She should have thought of him.

"Enough." Fundy butted in. Minx looked at him- he was grinning. "You only really have one use for us now-" Fundy pulled out a needle of black liquid. It almost seemed to glint in the light. "Test Subject Number Three's a bit of a long name. How do you like Third?"

Minx's eyes widened. "You wouldn't." Her anger turned to fear, and that petrified her. She froze like a deer in headlights.

"Oh, Minx, I'm not Eret. I've got a much more... Flexible set of morals." The needle drew closer to her flesh. "You should be honored- the first person to have the true version of Mute injected."

She watched the needle with wide eyes as it touched her bicep. It wasn't piercing, but it was so close. She was so close to losing her power.

Tears burned their way out of her eyes. _Anything but this, please, anything._

"STOP!" called a voice from the doorway. Fundy froze. "Remove the needle and let her go!"

Surprisingly, Fundy did as the voice asked. Minx watched as he took a step away from her. Only then did Minx feel comfortable enough to look up at her savior.

Niki stood there, Scott passed out on the ground behind her. Minx gasped. Fundy shook his head wildly as if trying to get her commands out of it.

Minx remembered who she was and what she could do. She teleported over to Niki.

"Are you alright?" Niki asked, checking Minx's arms.

"I'm fine, none of it was actually injected."

"Good, good. We've got to get down to the Lab- they took Tommy down there. Eret's trying to get to him, but he'll need us."

"Hold on, you're... betraying the rest?" Minx said. She shut the door on Fundy and grabbed a chair from a bit down the hall. She shoved it under the doorknob, jamming it.

Niki waited for Minx to finish before nodding. "Come on, we need to go."

The two women ran down the hallway to the stairs. They slid down the banister and pushed open the door to the lab.

Eret waited for them there. He gave a small wave. He looked disheveled- his crown and sunglasses were askew.

Karl's unconscious body gave a reason. There had been a fight. Punz was battling a clone of Eret.

"The kid's in that room-" Eret pointed to a heavy-looking door. "I think they were drawing blood. Harvey rushed out with something red in his hands. It was either blood or organs."

"Alright, you finish up here. We'll get Tommy." Minx said. Both she and Niki ran over to the door.

It was locked. "Shit!" Niki said, banging on the door. "TOMMY?"

There was a pause. Then a soft knock came from the bottom of the door. He was alive. From the sound of it, barely. "We're gonna go get someone who can unlock this," Minx said. There was another, even fainter knock from the bottom of the door. 

They met up with Eret at the bottom of the stairs. Punz was knocked out as well, so they got up to the top floor without issue. Minx grabbed both of their hands and closed her eyes, using most of her energy to get them to the outside- to the heroes.

\----------

The siege started with the rain. Tubbo and Wilbur were both near the back- their powers weren't the most useful for this type of combat, especially with Wil's power on the fritz.

The heroes didn't actually attack first. A sheet of familiar purple haze covered the battleground. Everyone put some sort of mask on. They wouldn't be fooled that easily. Not again.

Lightning struck in the middle of the courtyard. Everyone was momentarily blinded. When the heroes could see again, they spotted four figures on the stairs to the entrance.

"We outnumber them! Techno, Sapnap, Skeppy, and I can take them!" Dream called out. "George, Bad! Back us up! Phil, do some recon!"

Phil took off and began to fly around. It was harder than normal- the storm's winds tried to push him this way and that. He managed to get balanced and swooped around the place.

Tubbo watched him and then turned his eyes back down to the combat which had started. He didn't know the names of most of these villains- there was one with an orange and green mask, one with a baseball cap and headphones, one with a beanie, and Spifey.

Skeppy took on Spifey. They clashed, fist on fist. Neither of them seemed very good at fighting like this. They were fairly evenly matched.

Techno went head to head with the masked one. The masked villain was fast and good with his sword. Techno was barely able to keep up, never mind using any openings.

Dream fought the beanied man. He seemed less able at combat but used his power to his advantage. His weapon, a twin pair of daggers, seemed like liquid in his hands. He got a few surprise hits on Dream when his daggers went right through Dream's swords.

Sapnap went against the man with the headphones and the cap. They quickly realized they were both elementals, and the battle devolved into fire versus lighting. It was very showy on both ends.

Tubbo and Wilbur stood in the back, watching. Bad and George looked for openings and tossed projectiles into the fray- they were somewhat focused. That's why Tubbo and Wilbur noticed first the three figures who teleported into the fray.

The three figures- Eret, Minx, and Niki, flicked in and out before getting a truly solid form. Tubbo got into a fighting stance with his bees. Wilbur followed suit.

Minx caught sight of him and burst into a grin. She ran over, dragging the other two with her. "Tubbo!" She stage whispered, not wanting to draw the attention of the other heroes.

Wilbur tensed at the sight of Niki, but she gave a wave and a small smile. "We're switching sides. Can either of you unlock a door?"

"Uhm," Tubbo said.

"Tommy's locked up- we need to get him out," Eret explained. Tubbo inhaled sharply.

"I can't unlock shit, but Wilbur may be able to use sound waves or something to get it open," Tubbo said, talking just a bit too fast.

Wilbur nodded. "I should be able to do that, at least. Even with my powers fucked up." He looked directly at Niki. She looked away.

"I'm going to take the heroes. You two... stay near." Minx said. Then she grabbed Tubbo and Wilbur's hands, and just like that, they were in the basement. Tubbo blinked until his eyes adjusted to the fluorescent lighting. The door in front of them was large and steel.

"Tommy? Are you still in there, you twat?" Minx asked. Despite the insult, her voice was concerned.

There was not a knock on the door this time.

"Open it, hurry!" Tubbo said. Wilbur nodded and held out a hand.

Sweat beaded on his forehead as he sent vibrations through the door, trying to get the lock. It clicked. He sighed. It used to be so much easier.

Tubbo rushed forward and tossed open the door.

Tommy was passed out on the ground right in front of it. Dread pooled in Tubbo's stomach. He was pale but breathing. He was still breathing. Barely.

Tubbo kneeled and shook his friend. Tommy didn't stir. All the adults hovered around, trying to figure out what to do.

Tears threatened to fall but Tubbo blinked hard and they didn't. "Tommy..." he murmured. His friend was, unsurprisingly, silent.

There were a few seconds when everyone was watching Tubbo and Tommy. No one had thought their reunion would look like this.

Everyone was silent.

That was shattered by a gasp from Wilbur. A certain clawed hand grabbed his arm. There was no time to react as Fundy stuck a needle of Mute into him.

Fundy laughed wildly. "It's kind of fitting that you're the first and last test subject, Wilbur."

The fluid was injected quickly. Fundy must have learned his lesson from Minx. He didn't try and draw it out this time. Wilbur froze, terrified.

Fundy pulled the needle out and Wilbur pulled away. He held his hands up and Fundy growled and put his hands to his head.

Then Fundy collapsed, Wilbur, having used the last of his power to knock him out.

Wilbur took a shaky inhale. It would be fine, right? He'd be fine, right?

He wasn't actually going to lose this power that he loved so much...

Right?

There was no time for these thoughts- Punz had started stirring. Tubbo picked up his friend, struggling a bit due to the height difference. Minx grabbed Wilbur and Tommy's wrists. Wilbur found himself fighting to not pull away.

He ended up losing that battle, but only when they had been teleported back to the surface. Wilbur's vision faded in and out. His breath was frantic. The corners of his vision started disappearing. His veins were on fire. He could _feel_ the Mute creeping through them. He could _feel_ it.

"Is he alright-" Eret started. Wilbur passed out on his feet. Eret barely caught him. "Well, that answers that."

"He got Muted... I think that was an anxiety attack." Niki said. She knelt down and checked his pulse. "Mhm, his pulse is very fast."

"Ah, I shouldn't have grabbed his arm like that. Not right after Fundy did." Minx said, a pitying look on her face.

Philza saw the new faces around Tubbo and swooped down. "Tubbo! Are you alrigh-" He saw Tommy. "How the fuck... Nevermind!"

"Phil! Great timing! Here's the rundown- these guys are good now, we went and got Tommy, and Wilbur got..." Tubbo paused. "Wilbur can tell that story when he feels like it. Anyways, we need to retreat. We've done what we need to here."

Phil paused to take in all of what Tubbo had said before nodding and taking off again. He flew a short way to George. 

"Retreat time. Tubbo got him. Call them out."

George gave a nod and called out a retreat command. Tubbo sent his bees to go swarm Harvey so Techno could get away. Techno then went and helped Skeppy fight off Spifey, then they helped Dream, and finally, they all went and gave Sapnap an assist against Jack.

They didn't manage to incapacitate any of the villains, though, so it was a running retreat as they fled the courtyard.

The group ran a couple of blocks before their pace slowed. Dream stopped them a bit later to do a headcount.

"We're four more than we were when we came out here..." He said. Dream looked back over everyone and spotted the villains. "YOU!" He pointed directly at them.

Tubbo slid in front of them. "They've switched sides. We can debrief everyone when we get back."

Dream looked them over, still a bit suspicious. "But we-"

"Please, Dream." Tubbo looked directly at where Dream's eyes would be. "I'm tired and I just want to get Tommy and Wilbur better again."

"...Fine." Dream said. He kept leading them on.

They were quite the parade as they walked through the town. A bunch of battered, bruised, and, in some cases, broken, group of heroes on display for everyone to see.

Things got blurry for Tubbo around here. He remembers getting back, seeing Finn... There's a vague memory of getting carried up the stairs after falling half asleep in the lobby.

Then the warm embrace of a blanket and one of the medroom's chairs. 

And then sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :D  
> hope you enjoyed !!  
> See you next time with another ch!!  
> -Sunny


	22. -Twenty One- Together Again.

Light filtered through the window. Tommy groaned and blinked awake.

He was in a room. The next thing he noticed was the IV stuck in his arm. His hand shot to it. He blinked and he was in a darker room, his hands and feet growing colder as the blood drained from him.

He blinked again and he was back in the safety of the bedroom. He forced himself to tear his eyes away from the IV and look around.

He was the only person awake in the room. Wilbur was sprawled on the bed farthest from him. Philza was passed out sitting on one side of the couch. Techno rested on his shoulder, snoring softly.

Tubbo lay in the bed next to him, a pleasant smile on his face. Tommy winced at the sight of his friend. Tubbo was clammy looking, dark bags streaking under his eyes.

Tommy straightened up and his bed creaked. Tubbo stirred. Tommy watched as Tubbo's smile faded. He had a cynical expression on his face.

Tubbo blinked at the ceiling before shooting up. He seemed a bit panicked. His entire posture softened as he saw Tommy. 

"T-Tommy?" Tubbo said, softly.

Tubbo quickly tossed his blanket off and ran over. Tommy laughed as he was enveloped in a hug.

"I-I missed you, big man..." Tommy muttered into Tubbo's shoulder. The hug lasted about thirty seconds. Neither of them seemed to want to pull away.

When they eventually did, the others had woken up. Techno sprang up, his quickness betraying his excitement. He caught himself and walked much more slowly over to Tommy. "Hi, nerd..." He ruffled the younger's hair. Techno caught himself with tears in his eyes but blinked them back.

He'd gotten much more attached to the little fan than he'd originally planned too.

Philza yawned and stretched, but paused when his eyes fell onto Tommy. He didn't say anything, but he walked over and put a hand on Tommy's shoulder.

Wilbur was the last to make a move. He was in his own hospital bed- they had wanted to keep an eye on his vitals to ensure the Mute wasn't having any unintended impacts. He just sat up and gave a wide grin and thumbs up to Tommy.

Tommy tried to smile back but hot tears welled up in his eyes. Tubbo sat next to Tommy on the bed. The more emotionally stable of the two grabbed the other's hand and squeezed it.

"I- I was so worried I would never see you guys again..." Tommy choked out, fighting back tears. "I thought that I-" Tommy paused, tears flowing freely now, "I wouldn't see the sun again."

Phil rubbed Tommy's back, attempting to soothe him. Time got a bit blurry- he seemed to spend hours at this moment, so very happy to be back with his family.

\----------

A bit later, Dream came in, followed closely by the rest. He bore breakfast and bad news.

"We got this letter in the mail-" Dream flashed the letter. "It's got a few coded words on it."

Minx spoke up. "I could read them!" She proposed. Most of the other heroes just gave her a suspicious glare.

"Thank you for the... idea, villain," Sapnap said, spitting the last word like an insult. "While we're on the topic, why are there three of our enemies here?"

"I-" Eret began.

"They aren't enemies!" Tommy jumped in. He sniffled. He was still a bit drained from the reunion earlier, but he spoke up nonetheless. "Minx helped me escape and the other two... helped her?"

"Yeah!" Minx butted in. "They helped me escape from Fundy when he tried to attack me at the start of the event."

"I... see," said George. "I still don't think we should trust them."

Tubbo laughed. "Think what you want, 'Gogy'!" George winced a bit at the nickname. "I trust them- they helped us get Tommy back."

Dream coughed. "Minx, if you would translate the letter for us?" He handed it over.

Minx took it and read over it. Confusion dawned in her eyes. She began to read it aloud. "Traitors, all three of them. We don't want them anymore. We have plans beyond them now. Be ready." She looked over the letter again. "Signed, Fundy."

"Plans beyond us? He couldn't possibly mean..." Eret started, before pausing and looking up at the rest. "When we started this group, Fundy had mentioned something about taking control of the whole city by stripping everyone of their powers..."

"I remember this!" Niki blurted out. "We didn't have a proper formula of Mute yet- we were still taking samples of blood for Copy. Now that they have the black sludge form of Mute, they could do a lot of things with it! Poison the water, who knows what else!"

"Worst case would be if they mixed it with Geo's smoke..." Minx said. "Oh damn, they're probably planning to mix it into his fucking haze somehow! Eret-"

Dream's head turned from person to person as the villains talked. He finally broke in after Minx. "Hold on, what's Copy?"

"Oh! We need to catch you up on some things, huh?" Niki said. 

"Alright- Let me start at the beginning," Eret said.

\----------

Eret had started the organization soon after Dream left. He'd remembered Dream's tales of his power. Mostly, how restricting it was. The original group was Minx, Fundy, Niki, and Eret. 

All of them, excluding Eret, had had issues with their powers in the past. When Minx first got her power, she teleported anytime she felt any extreme emotion. That was often. Her peers would pick on her to illicit a teleportation based response. Needless to say, she was all in on the project. She wanted to make Mute an option for everyone, so people with powers they disliked could get rid of them.

Niki had much of the same reasoning. Her charmspeak was a curse when she first got it. She essentially stopped talking the first year she had her powers. Anything she said would be taken as a command by anyone. Her power was especially taxing to use, too. The few years it took her to grow into her power had been a silent hell for her. Mute could have fixed her problem- she was all for making it.

Fundy's reasoning was pretty obvious. He was a fox and didn't want to be. Eret had been a bit wary of Fundy, honestly. Fundy's clawed hands grasped towards power more than what was right most of the time.

It seemed they grasped that way now. Eret, Minx, and Niki pieced together the basic blueprint of what they thought the Assembly's plan would be from here on out. 

Fundy would most likely take Mute and then be powerless. But, he'd have all the powers they'd managed to manufacture into Copy at his disposal. He wouldn't truly be powerless. He'd be multipowered.

Then the villains would probably find a way to distribute Mute. The best way would be to find a way to evaporate the sludge and incorporate it into the haze Spifey could create.

That would be easy enough to mass produce and spread throughout the city. If it all worked as planned, the Assembly would be the only ones with powers left in the City of Superheros.

No one would be able to stop them from taking over Illosia by force. They would be the rulers.

\-----------

"Cunning plan." Dream said.

"Fundy sure does make a great fox." Wilbur piped up from his hospital bed.

"How long do you think we have before they have enough materials to pull this off?" Skeppy asked. He seemed nervous.

"Based on how long it took them to make the final version of Mute after they got Tommy... Three weeks, about." Eret said, doing quick math on his fingers.

"Not even a month... We should get started preparing right away." Techno said.

"Hold on, hold on, what should we be preparing?" Bad asked. "Materials?"

"Anything that would give us an edge." The Blade began pacing the less crowded side of the room, near Tommy's hospital bed. "We need to get back into fighting shape."

"I'm hearing that we need more training time," Phil said. Tommy and Tubbo looked at each other, partially in fear.

"Not just you two!" Dream said. "I think nearly all of us could afford to brush up on combat."

"Especially those who haven't taken lessons," Techno glanced over the room, his eyes stopping on George, Bad, Skeppy, and Sapnap. "Or those who have had a change in power." He finished. This time, he was looking at Wilbur

Wilbur glared at him from across the room. "Too soon, Mr. Blade! Too soon!" Techno chuckled.

"I could have been talking about Tommy, for all you know!" Techno's monotone voice was just barely lilted with laughter.

Tommy stuck his tongue out at Wilbur. Then he gasped. "Wait, wait, wait. I could give a lesson on combat! I know more about using a baseball bat than most people in this room!"

"I want to be in Tommy's class!" Tubbo exclaimed. There was a pause before most of the room burst out with laughter.

That died down soon enough. Everyone stood still for a second.

"Well! We have no time to waste, get to preparing! I expect to see all of your training harder than you ever had before!" Dream called out.

With that, they all dispersed. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're in the final arc, yall!!   
> hope you enjoyed this ch!!  
> see you next time!!
> 
> -Sunny


End file.
